During the industry day of the annual Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Robert Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate for US president, unveiled an ambitious financial policy plan that could make the United States the world’s largest holder of Bitcoin. The policy focuses on strategically acquiring $619 billion worth of Bitcoin to match the US’s current gold reserves. The move, according to Kennedy Jr., aims to reset monetary policy and increase fiscal discipline in the federal government.
Kennedy Jr. Donald Trump
During a round table discussion With Scott Melker and Custodia Bank CEO Caitlyn Long, Kennedy Jr. emphasized the philosophical alignment between his policies and the Bitcoin community’s ideals of personal freedom, property rights, and government integrity. “This is about more than increasing the size of your stack,” Kennedy Jr. said, underlining Bitcoin’s potential to increase self-sovereignty and counteract what he describes as a “destructive war economy” driven by fiat currency.
“Bitcoin is not only a way out of this inflationary road that is the road 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 themselves 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 of Bitcoin and the recent gestures of support former President Donald Trump, who will speak at the conference on Saturday. Kennedy highlighted Trump’s past skepticism and his recent controversial decision to potentially nominate JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon as Treasury secretary, which Kennedy criticized as contrary to the spirit of draining the political “swamp.”
He added: “President Trump has also been connected with Steve Mnuchin, who has tried to shut down peer-to-peer Bitcoin transactions,” emphasizing the need for a cautious approach to Trump’s newfound enthusiasm for Bitcoin.
Additionally, Kennedy Jr. detailed his plan to gradually integrate Bitcoin into the U.S. Treasury. Starting with the issuance of Treasury bonds backed by a basket of hard currencies — including platinum and gold — Kennedy proposed a phased approach that would start with 1% of new Treasury bond issuances backed by these hard assets, increasing to 100% over time.
The US would need to buy $619 billion worth of Bitcoin
“I would be willing to add Bitcoin to the balance sheet. I will do that. In fact, I will do a basket of hard currencies, maybe platinum, gold, other hard currencies, and start issuing at least the class of treasuries that are anchored to hard currencies. Let’s say the first year at 1% and then maybe the next year at 2% and see how that goes, because that will inject discipline into the product and eventually it will get to 100%,” Kennedy Jr. explained.
Related Reading
Notably, his strategy would involve direct purchases of Bitcoin to obtain holdings equivalent to the US gold reserves. “I would like the federal government to start buying Bitcoin and, over the course of my term, have an amount of Bitcoin equivalent to what we have gold. Because Bitcoin is an honest currency, it is a proof-of-work currency,” he stated.
According to data According to Arkham, the US government currently holds 213,239 BTC worth $14.3 billion that has been confiscated by authorities. This means that even if Kennedy were to transfer all of this to a strategic reserve, the US would need to buy a lot more BTC at current prices.
The US currently holds the largest official gold reserves in the world, with 8,134 tonnes of gold valued at approximately $619 billion. To match that value with Bitcoin at current prices, it would require the purchase of around 9.4 million BTC. This acquisition would represent almost 45% of the total 21 million BTC that will be mined.
For perspective, Microstrategythe largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, owns 226,331 BTC, and Black stonethe largest spot 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