JAN3 founder and uber Bitcoin maxi Samson Mow finds it absurd the US government is yet to start accumulating Bitcoin for its strategic reserve after giving the rest of the world the blueprint.
“It would be incredibly ironic and unfortunate that the US, which took bold steps, and the Trump administration, which took bold steps to push this forward, gets front-run by other nation states that are inspired by their actions,” the Chinese-Canadian Bitcoin entrepreneur tells Magazine.
It’s been three months since Trump signed the executive order, and Mow says the US “has to start” acquiring Bitcoin this year. “The risk is that the US is front-run by Pakistan, and they were on stage at Las Vegas saying, ‘well, you inspired us to start,’” the 13-year Bitcoiner explains.
Bilal Bin Saqib, head of Pakistan’s crypto council, announced at Bitcoin 2025 Las Vegas on May 28 that the country is moving to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. “We want to thank the United States of America again because we were inspired by them,” Saqib said at the event.
Governments and political candidates in countries such as the UK, Brazil, Poland, China, Russia, and Japan have also expressed interest in a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Mow questions why the US government has yet to start acquiring Bitcoin
The US Bitcoin Strategic Reserve is comprised of BTC seized in criminal cases, and currently holds 198,012 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $20.67 billion at the time of publication.
While spending government money to acquire more Bitcoin for the reserve would probably require Congressional approval, there are “budget-neutral” ways the Government could have already used to acquire Bitcoin, says Mow.
“That could have been selling gold to accumulate Bitcoin,” Mow explains. The US government holds the largest gold reserve in the world, with 8,133 metric tons in its possession. Mow points out that retail investors are already rotating out of gold ETFs and into Bitcoin ETFs.
“The time to do some sort of budget-neutral acquisition, disposing of an inferior asset for a superior asset, is closing very rapidly.”
Mow is perhaps the foremost proponent of nation-state Bitcoin adoption, and has been pursuing the goal vigorously since he stepped down as chief strategy officer at Adam Back’s Blockstream in March 2022 after five years with the company.
In April that year, the University of British Columbia graduate launched his Bitcoin advisory firm JAN3. The name “JAN3” is a reference to Jan. 3, 2009, which is the day that Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, mined the first block — also known as the “genesis block” — of Bitcoin.
Mow has been visiting nations like Japan, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico to engage with governments about the benefits of holding Bitcoin.
JAN3 offers strategies and guidance on everything from exchange operations and wallet development to mining infrastructure.
Trump must have a Bitcoin “accumulation strategy” before he leaves office
Mow says the Trump administration is racing against the clock to secure its Bitcoin strategy as the next administration “can basically dismantle everything that was put forth, so everything can be rescinded that Trump has done so far.”
“That’s why I think it’s of the utmost importance to have an accumulation strategy running before he leaves office.”
“What we see at JAN3 is that in most countries, when a new party or administration comes to power in the first year, they don’t really want to do anything,” he says.
Mow says it’s only really in the second and third years that they’re capable and able to do things, as they’re reluctant to rock the boat in an election year.
That said, Mow believes that “maybe it’s okay” if current vice president JD Vance takes over. At the Bitcoin2025 event in Las Vegas, Vance made bullish comments, saying that 50 million Americans currently own Bitcoin, and he believes it won’t be long before that number doubles to 100 million.
Mow sometimes regrets being a famous Bitcoiner
Mow is one of the best-known Bitcoiners in the world. Even many normies would recognize him from his appearance on HBO’s controversial documentary Money Electric, which speculated that software developer Peter Todd might be Satoshi Nakamoto.
However, Mow says that kind of visibility has its downsides.
“If I could have done it all over again, I probably would not have been like sort of a personality in Bitcoin,” Mow says.
It’s a bit late for that, with 346,000 followers for his X account and a leading role in the “block wars” that tore apart the Bitcoin community between 2015 and 2017 and led to the Bitcoin Cash fork.
“I…
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