It looked like after all what he was saying about destroying it to prevent the Decepticons for using it for evil purposes that he actually removed it pretty carefully and had other intentions for it. I think if they had zero intentions of using it further they would not have shown Optimus removing it.
It would be cool to see it forged into the matrix of leadership or something but it looked too small to me, I'd have to look at it again and I think I will this Saturday when more friends and family come over because they cannot make it up on Christmas day but one present I am giving is the Target exclusive two disk version of the movie to my nephew so he will be so excited and want to watch the movie.