AsianFin -- A massive U.S. government purchase of Bitcoin could catapult the cryptocurrency's price to $1 million, according to the Bitcoin Policy Institute. Speaking on a Bitcoin Magazine podcast, the institute’s head of policy, Zach Shapiro, said such a move would trigger a global market shock.

“If the United States announces that we are buying a million Bitcoin, that’s just a global seismic shock,” Shapiro said. “I think first, Bitcoin price goes through the roof. I think we’d probably go very quickly to something like a million dollars per Bitcoin.”

The comments come in the wake of a March 7 executive order by President Donald Trump that called for the creation of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a broader Digital Asset Stockpile. The order directed the Treasury and Commerce Departments to explore acquisition strategies that would not increase the federal deficit—potentially leveraging alternative revenue sources unrelated to taxation.

Matthew Pines, executive director of the Bitcoin Policy Institute, added that amassing Bitcoin reserves would signal the seriousness of Trump’s ambition to position the U.S. as a “Bitcoin superpower.”

“If Donald Trump wants to make good on his promise to be a Bitcoin superpower, that ultimately comes down to how much Bitcoin you have,” Pines said. “This is a measure of how much the United States is making good on that rhetorical objective.”