The US State Department is to initiate a program that includes Bitcoin as a way to advance digital freedom around the world.
The program is called the Freedom Tech Excellence Program, which will see the State Department work with the Bitcoin Policy Institute, data analysis company Palantir Technologies, security technology company Anduril Industries, and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation on issues including internet surveillance, encryption, AI control, and protecting free speech online.
According to the program’s stated goals, participants will focus on five key areas: the First Amendment and the protection of liberties in the digital age; preventing illegal digital surveillance and online fraud; privacy-enhancing technologies such as strong encryption and VPNs; Effective management of emerging technologies including AI; and to protect children and other Internet users.
The inclusion of the Bitcoin Policy Institute shows that the department sees Bitcoin and blockchain technology as tools that should address the monitoring and control of money in authoritarian countries – a topic that the organization has been fighting for a long time in its advocacy work.
The FTP will operate on a short-term basis, placing government officials within the State Department on a temporary basis tasked with coordinating diplomatic efforts on digital rights issues.
President Trump campaigned on a ticket to support cryptocurrencies and since taking office, his administration has taken an aggressive approach in regulating and integrating real estate assets into its administration.
In March 2025, for example, President Trump signed an order establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a separate US Digital Asset Stockpile, containing approximately 200,000 Bitcoins that were previously held by the government due to terrorist seizures.
The system that created Bitcoin along with the reserves that the US
