PANews reported on August 7 that according to Bloomberg, Donald Trump's campaign promise to use the cryptocurrency held by the US government to establish a national Bitcoin reserve has aroused concerns from former prosecutors, who said that this move would transfer seized digital assets that could have been used to compensate crime victims. Experts said that Trump's "never sell Bitcoin" philosophy violates a core principle of US confiscation law: the government sells seized assets to repay crime victims and support law enforcement.

Amanda Wick, a former federal prosecutor and head of Incite Consulting, said: "Most of these 'reserves' may belong to victims of hackers, ransomware and scams, and the money should be returned to the victims. If they knew this, I believe the crypto community would not say that you should deceive victims to hoard Bitcoin."

Elizabeth Boison, a former federal prosecutor who oversaw forfeiture matters for the Justice Department, said the proposed Bitcoin reserve is inconsistent with current law. "The primary purpose of asset forfeiture is to deter and punish criminal activity by depriving criminals of property used or obtained through illegal conduct," Boison said. She added that Trump's proposal "is inconsistent with the purpose of asset forfeiture and the provisions of the law that currently allow for the forfeiture of assets."

Laurel Loomis Rimon, another former federal prosecutor, added that the U.S. government can only recover assets after obtaining a final forfeiture order from a judge. She said the government is not making money from the assets, as Trump has claimed. “I think he’s trying to win favor with the cryptocurrency industry, which doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Rimon said.