I've still not seen a coherent answer to the question of how...

I've still not seen a coherent answer to the question of how something can claim value from scarcity when quite literally anyone, anywhere, anytime can create a competitor to bitcoin, other than first mover advantage btc has zero competitive edge. Also while we're at it, for a country to have a Sovereign Wealth Fund the country requires to actually run a current account surplus which the US does not have (biggly). Therefore they have no ability to fund the SWF, which begs the question, what game is the US administration playing? I have a theory based on what I've read / heard / observe / speculate that both the BTC reserve and SWF are a slight of hand for their real intention, retire large amounts of US debt. But how? Turns out it's already happening.
We all know the revalue gold on the books story by now. By taking an administrative step the treasury marks to market the 8.2t US gold and contrives $800b in equity, the fed monetizes the equity and funds the treasury general account with $800b in dollars, a type of QE without using the treasury market. Makes sense so far except, in the grand scheme of things $800b is sweet f all for a country like the US.
I believe, they're using the whole Trump crypto pump as a distraction from what they're actually doing which is factually demonstrable, vast amounts of gold entering the US. The US no longer has the capacity to revalue gold to a higher price as FDR did in 1933 due to non-convertibility, nor do they have the ability to acquire any additional bullion as mentioned already due to crippling deficits. However, US bullion banks on the other hand do have the capacity to stand for physical delivery and drain the LMBA to such an extent that the demand reduces the paper to physical ratio driving the price up to a level that the US government wants. I believe this is exactly what we're seeing play out in real time. Simply, US bullion banks at the request of the administration are standing for delivery which reduces the London's relevance in fixing the gold price. Once gold reaches desired "market" level, the treasury will then carry out their mark to market revaluation as discussed already. The fed funds the equity into the TGA and the treasury begins buying back US sovereign debt driving debt to GDP back down to more sustainable levels.