"Never sell your bitcoin," Donald Trump told a cheering crowd at a crypto convention in Nashville, Tennessee in late July.

The Republican presidential candidate's speech was the latest overture in his effort to court crypto-focused voters ahead of November's election and offered a bevy of campaign promises, including a plan for a state bitcoin reserve.

"If elected, it will be the policy of my administration to keep 100% of all the bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds or acquires into the future," Trump said, adding the funds would serve as the "core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile."