By Medha Singh and Lisa Pauline Mattackal

(Reuters) – “Never sell your bitcoin,” Donald Trump told a cheering crowd at a cryptocurrency convention in Nashville, Tennessee, in behind schedule July.

The Republican presidential candidate’s speech was the latest move in his bid to win over voters interested in cryptocurrencies ahead of the November election. He outlined a series of campaign promises, including a plan to create a state bitcoin reserve.

“If elected, it will be the policy of my administration to retain 100% of all bitcoin that the U.S. government currently owns or acquires in the future,” Trump said, adding that the funds would form “the core of a strategic national bitcoin stockpile.”

Indeed, Trump is not the only one with such a proposal. US Senator Cynthia Lummis has introduced a bill that would allow the US government to buy one million bitcoins, about 5% of the total supply, while independent candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has suggested a government supply of four million bitcoins.

A strategic reserve would be one employ for the huge amount of bitcoin held by the U.S. government. But it’s unclear what it would be used for, whether it’s feasible, or even whether it’s welcome in the broader cryptocurrency market.

The U.S. government has a massive stash of cryptocurrencies: worth about $11.1 billion, made up of 203,239 bitcoin tokens, according to data firm Arkham Intelligence. The stack comes from seizures from criminals, including from online marketplace Silk Road, which was shut down in 2013, according to the firm.

Currently, the U.S. holds about 1% of the total global bitcoin supply, which is about 19.7 million tokens, according to Blockchain.com. The total bitcoin supply is capped at 21 million coins.

Compared to huge non-government investors, Michael Saylor’s Microstrategy (NASDAQ:) holds about 226,500 bitcoin tokens, according to its second-quarter results. BlackRock’s (NYSE:) iShares Bitcoin Trust and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust have 344,070 and 240,140 tokens, respectively, according to data from BitcoinTreasuries.

A government supply of bitcoin could support the price of bitcoin.

“It would have a positive impact on price. It would have to, because we’ve never had such a tight supply of a commodity, albeit a digital one, taking on a new state of reserve assets,” said Mark Connors, head of global macroeconomics at Onramp Bitcoin.

However, such a reserve also means that cryptocurrency investors will have fewer tokens to trade, and if the government ever sold some of its reserves, they could be exposed to risk.

“RFK talked about owning 19% of bitcoin, which is the same amount of gold that he owns — I can’t imagine any bitcoin owner would be happy with that,” Connors added.

Aside from the United States, other governments also boast massive Bitcoin holdings, with BitcoinTreasuries reporting that the second largest holder of the coin is the Chinese government, which has 190,000 coins in its collection.

“A LOT TO CONSIDER”

While the prospects for a national bitcoin reserve remain uncertain, cryptocurrency observers are wondering what form it could take.

Connors suggested the Federal Reserve could manage the Treasury’s reserves, as it does gold. Alternatively, the stockpile could be more like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, where both the president and Congress have varying degrees of control, according to Frank Kelly, senior policy strategist at asset manager DWS Group.

“There’s a lot to analyze and understand there,” Kelly said.

There is also an irony that many ardent Bitcoin supporters find unsatisfying: a digital asset that was supposed to be decentralized and free from government control is becoming part of the national reserve.

Regardless of what happens to bitcoin stocks, many market participants welcome the fact that cryptocurrencies are becoming a major campaign topic.

“There is a general feeling in the industry that both sides are paying a lot more attention to digital assets,” said Raoul Mewawalla, CEO of Mawson Infrastructure Group, which operates bitcoin mining data centers.

“This situation is expected to continue after November.”