The U.S. government is set to formally announce a crypto strategic reserve on Friday, with Bitcoin expected to hold a unique status among digital assets, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed in an interview with The Pavlovic Today.

"A Bitcoin strategic reserve is something the President’s interested in," Lutnick said. "He spoke about it all during the campaign trail, and I think you’re going to see it executed on Friday."

While Bitcoin is expected to be at the core of the reserve, the status of other cryptocurrencies remains unclear. "Bitcoin is one thing, and then the other currencies, the other crypto tokens, I think, will be treated differently — positively, but differently," Lutnick added.

The remarks come after President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday that the U.S. would create a "crypto reserve" including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and Cardano. His follow-up post clarified that "obviously, BTC and ETH, as other valuable cryptocurrencies, will be at the heart of the reserve."

While some industry leaders support the move, Bitcoiners criticized the move.

The expected announcement on Friday coincides with the White House’s first crypto summit, where key industry figures — including Armstrong, Kraken CEO Arjun Sethi, Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor, Multicoin Capital’s Kyle Samani, and Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang — are set to attend.

The summit, chaired by AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks, will replace Trump’s originally planned "crypto council", which was scrapped due to industry disagreements over priorities.