US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told the House Armed Services Committee this week that the Pentagon is running classified Bitcoin projects that provide the U.S. military with “a lot of leverage in a lot of different scenarios.” This repositioned Bitcoin from a speculative technology price prediction to an instrument of American strategic power.
Given that it was issued by the person responsible for the world’s largest military budget, it became the most significant institutional endorsement Bitcoin has received since the approval of spot ETFs.
BREAKING: Secretary Hegseth testifies that Bitcoin is a tool that supports the projection of American power and counters digital authoritarianism when called upon. @lancegooden on strategic Bitcoin competition. pic.twitter.com/gzotvdEv2M
– Bitcoin Policy Institute (@bitcoinpolicy) April 29, 2026
Hegseth has been publicly bullish on Bitcoin since at least 2021, when he first touted it as a hedge against inflation. His 2025 financial documents confirmed that he personally held BTC. But his previous plea was the opinion of a media personality. What changed this week was the office, with Hegseth now speaking for an institution with a $900 billion annual budget, classified operational programs and a mandate to counter peer adversaries.
This change didn’t happen in a vacuum either. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2025 establishing a strategic bitcoin reserve seeded with approximately 200,000 government-held coins from confiscations. Hegseth’s testimony this week focuses on the national security architecture built around this policy foundation.
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Russia, China and the defense argument
The Hegseth framework is grounded in specific contradictory dynamics with analytical weight. Russia now represents 16% of global Bitcoin mining, the second largest mining hub in the world. China, despite its 2021 nationwide ban, still accounts for nearly 12% of global mining activity through underground and offshore operations.
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Russia’s Central Bank Says Bitcoin Mining Supports Ruble – Foresight news
Russia is estimated to control 16% of the global Bitcoin hash rate. pic.twitter.com/PIqTVU2SvM
– Bitcoin Archive (@BitcoinArchive) December 22, 2025
Russia’s Central Bank Says Bitcoin Mining Supports Ruble – Foresight newsBoth powers are increasingly using digital assets to settle energy transactions and reduce their exposure to dollar-denominated financial rails. China and Russia are no longer abstract debates. It is now an active infrastructure competition.
When Iran reportedly demands Bitcoin for transit access and North Korea conducts crypto-denominated ransomware operations, the asset stops being a fringe experiment and starts being a geopolitical variable. Hegseth explicitly positioned Bitcoin’s decentralized architecture as a counterweight to what he described as China’s “digital control model,” referring to Beijing’s push for a state-controlled digital currency that preserves the capacity for surveillance and censorship.
Meanwhile, Iran is taking in $2,000,000 in Bitcoin or Yuan per tanker! pic.twitter.com/cDc3CLOLZR
– Crypto Rover (@cryptorover) April 9, 2026
BREAKING: European Union says navigation in Strait of Hormuz should be ‘without payment or toll’The EU has already begun to strengthen the enforcement of crypto sanctions against Russia precisely for these reasons, emphasizing that Western governments have accepted the geopolitical framework even as they differ on national crypto policy.
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Bitcoin Price Prediction: Bullish?
Hegseth’s pivot is a long-term tailwind, not a short-term price catalyst. Bitcoin is still 35% below its October high. National security talk doesn’t address macroeconomic issues like the rate environment, risk-free stock flows, and broader crypto sentiment that have kept BTC suppressed. This changes the probability distribution of outcomes over a 12 to 36 month horizon.
Institutional adoption is already accelerating among pension funds and sovereign allocators, and the Pentagon framework adds a new category of justification to this trend.
If Hegseth’s framework becomes codified DoD policy, it would likely trigger formal institutional mandates in pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, forcing Bitcoin’s strategic reserve to increase significantly. If this happens, Bitcoin could be revalued above $120,000 as a new demand class. This is a simple government-adjacent institutional allocation entering the market on a large scale.
The key variable to watch is Congressman Lance Gooden’s proposed defense legislation incorporating crypto strategies. If the project progresses in committee, it means that the framework proposed by Hegseth becomes a sustainable political infrastructure. If the project bogs down, the question of national security remains rhetorical.
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The article Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC Is a Pentagon “National Security Asset” appeared first on 99Bitcoins.
