The City of Roswell, New Mexico, has officially established the first U.S. municipal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve through donations, with the reserve now holding approximately 0.173 BTC worth roughly $13,000. According to Arkham Intelligence, the municipal wallet contains funds that arrived as donations in 2025 and have remained parked at the same address since without any outgoing transactions. The town of 48,000 residents has not flagged this holding in any public budget documents, and officials have not commented publicly on who sent the Bitcoin or their plans for the funds. The reserve's establishment represents a significant milestone for municipal Bitcoin adoption in the United States, with the discovery sparking intrigue given Roswell's extraterrestrial-focused history.
The Bitcoin reserve's evolution began with the very first seed contribution deposited on April 29, 2025, which included 3,050,323 satoshis, equaling 0.0305 BTC and valued at around $2,906. Anonymous subsequent contributions from various Bitcoin addresses, including some associated with regular retail wallets and services like Robinhood, have increased the total balance to the current 0.173 BTC. The city's Arkham profile features a customized avatar combining extraterrestrial imagery with the Roswell Cosmicon logo, and the reception of the first contribution has been signed by Mayor pro tem Juliana Halvorson and Bitcoin enthusiast Guy Malone. The Arkham dashboard shows that the reserve is maintained on the Bitcoin blockchain with no outflows recorded, and the chart showing balance evolution indicates continuous increase since mid-2025, driven by Bitcoin price growth rather than municipal purchases.
Roswell's connection to extraterrestrial folklore dates back to July 1947, when a local rancher found metallic debris on his property. As reported by Arkham Intelligence, the Roswell Army Air Field initially described the wreckage as a flying disc before retracting the statement and calling it a weather balloon. The town has built much of its identity and tourism economy around alien iconography, with the International UFO Museum and Research Center anchoring a local industry built on the original story. Arkham's research team called the Bitcoin donations a possible cypherpunk chapter in Roswell's sci-fi history, with the firm teasing whether this represents the first extraterrestrial BTC stash. The irony of a city known for covering up a weather balloon as aliens is now amassing Bitcoins under the table has sparked discussions suggesting that the original visitors from 1947 might have returned and diversified into Bitcoin.
Roswell's Bitcoin management is regulated by a very restrictive municipal ordinance that prohibits quick selling of these digital currencies. All Bitcoin donations must be held for at least 10 years, after which the city can spend no more than 21 percent of the funds annually. Such spending can take place once every five years, with uses highly restricted to two purposes only—subsidizing the payment of elderly people's water bills and financing disaster relief efforts. The ordinance's timing coincides with renewed UFO interest, as President Trump issued a directive on February 21, 2026, ordering various government agencies to declassify documents regarding UAP/UFOs. The Department of Defense has since published multiple batches of papers and videos through war.gov/ufo, with the first batch released on May 8, 2026 and second on May 22, 2026.
While Roswell's $13,000 Bitcoin reserve represents a charming marketing stunt, the real Bitcoin buying spree belongs to Strategy (MSTR), which holds approximately 843,738 Bitcoin worth $63 billion at current prices near $76,000 per coin. As reported by Strategy, the company has become a systematic, relentless Bitcoin accumulator with a functioning funding pipeline through its STRC preferred stock program. In Q1 2026 alone, Strategy raised $5.6 billion in gross proceeds from STRC preferred stock issuance, with STRC now trading at $8.5 billion outstanding and daily volume around $375 million. The company's average cost basis sits at $66,384 per coin, positioning it for healthy unrealized gains as Bitcoin trades around $75,800 to $78,000. Strategy's stock has added roughly 45% over the past 30 days, reflecting strong market confidence in its Bitcoin accumulation strategy.
