During the industry day of the annual Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Robert Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate for the US presidency, unveiled an ambitious financial policy plan that could transform the United States into the world’s largest holder of Bitcoin. The policy aims to strategically acquire Bitcoin, worth $619 billion, to match current US gold reserves. This step, according to Kennedy Jr. aimed at redefining monetary policy and strengthening fiscal discipline within the federal government.
Kennedy Jr. vs. Donald Trump
During a round table discussion discussion Joined by Scott Melker and Caitlyn Long, CEO of Custodia Bank, Kennedy Jr. the philosophical alignment between its policies and the Bitcoin community’s ideals of personal freedom, property rights, and government integrity. “This is more than just about growing the stack,” Kennedy Jr. said, underscoring Bitcoin’s potential to increase self-sovereignty and counter what he describes as a “destructive war economy” powered by fiat money.
“Bitcoin is not only an off-ramp to this inflation highway that is the highway to hell, but it is also a way to restore the integrity of our government. It is a way to restore personal freedoms, it is a way for the middle class to insulate itself from inflation, which is just a form of government theft,” the independent candidate said.
Related reading
Kennedy Jr. drew a contrast between his consistent advocacy for Bitcoin and the recent supportive gestures of former President Donald Trump, who will speak at the conference on Saturday. Kennedy pointed to Trump’s past skepticism and his recent controversial decision to potentially appoint JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon as Treasury Secretary, which Kennedy said was at odds with the ethos of draining the political “swamp.”
He added, “President Trump was also connected to Steve Mnuchin trying to end person-to-person Bitcoin transactions,” underscoring the need for a cautious approach to Trump’s newfound enthusiasm for Bitcoin.
In addition, Kennedy Jr. detailed his plan to gradually integrate Bitcoin into the US Treasury. Starting with the issuance of government bonds anchored in a basket of hard currencies – including platinum and gold – Kennedy proposed a phased approach that would start with 1% of new government bonds, backed by these hard assets, and increase over the course of the time could be scaled up to 100%.
The US would need to buy $619 billion worth of Bitcoin
“I would be willing to add Bitcoin to the balance sheet. I’m going to do that. I’m basically going to create a basket of hard currencies, maybe platinum and gold and other hard currencies, and start issuing at least the class of government bonds that are anchored to hard currencies. Let’s say the first year at 1% and then maybe the next year at 2% to see how that goes because that will bring discipline into the product and eventually go up to 100%,” Kennedy Jr. explained. out.
Related reading
In particular, his strategy would include direct purchases of Bitcoin to acquire an asset equivalent to US gold reserves. “I would like to see the federal government start buying Bitcoin and eventually have an equivalent amount of Bitcoin as we have gold during my time in office. Because Bitcoin is a fair coin, it is a coin based on proof of work,” he stated.
According to facts According to Arkham, the US government currently holds 213,239 BTC worth $14.3 billion that has been seized by law enforcement. That means that even if Kennedy were to transfer them all to a strategic reserve, the US would have to buy a lot more BTC at current prices.
The US currently has the largest official gold reserves in the world, with 8,134 tons of gold worth approximately $619 billion. To match this value with Bitcoin at current prices would require purchasing approximately 9.4 million BTC. This acquisition would represent almost 45% of the total 21 million BTC that will ever be mined.
For perspective, MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, owns 226,331 BTC, and BlackRock, the largest Bitcoin ETF manager, controls 334,000 BTC.
At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $66,976.
Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com