Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has expressed his desire to establish a strategic reserve of Bitcoin for the United States, which could be unexpectedly announced during his keynote speech at the Bitcoin conference in 2024. Independent presidential candidate Ken Kennedy has taken a step ahead, promising on Wednesday, July 24th, that, if successfully elected, he will buy $615 billion worth of Bitcoin, which would be equivalent to the gold reserve.
Decrypt reported that Ken Kennedy emphasized that he would urge the federal government to purchase Bitcoin until its holdings match the size of the country's gold reserves. #US_Elections#
(Source: Youtube)
The U.S. government is the world's largest holder of gold with 8,134 tonnes of gold. At current prices, this is worth $615 billion. To achieve this value for Bitcoin, which is the equivalent of gold reserves, requires as high as 9.4 million Bitcoins, or almost 45% of the total supply to be mined.
"Bitcoin is an honest currency," Kennedy said during a conversation with Caitlin Long, CEO of Custodia Bank, hosted by YouTube video blogger Scott Melker. "It is a proof-of-work-based currency. Everything is on the ledger and it is decentralized, which is what our democracy needs."
Such a large-scale allocation of Bitcoin is consistent with Kennedy's previously announced plan, which supports government currency and debt with a basket of hard currencies and lists gold, silver, platinum and Bitcoin as viable investments.
He further elaborated on these plans on Wednesday, stating that a new type of U.S. Treasury Bill would be anchored to this basket at 1% in the first year, 2% in the second year and 100% in the end.
However, the purchase of Bitcoin by the country will take place within the first four years of Kennedy's term in office.
"I hope that the federal government starts buying Bitcoin and, during my term, ultimately matches Bitcoin with gold," he said.
If this is the case, then according to today's standards, the United States would easily become the world's largest holder of Bitcoins.
MicroStrategy, the largest listed whale on Wall Street, currently holds 226,331 Bitcoins, worth $14.41 billion, while BlackRock, which issues the world's largest Bitcoin spot ETF, controls 334,000 Bitcoins, worth $21.73 billion.
With the rise in the price of Bitcoin, the government could reach the benchmark of $615 billion without having to hoard 9 million Bitcoins, but this would undoubtedly make the United States one of the world's dominant holders of Bitcoin.
Such a massive acquisition plan will bring unprecedented unexpected wealth to Bitcoin investors during Kennedy's term in office.
Kennedy previously promised to waive the capital gains tax on Bitcoin, which would encourage the Bitcoin industry to stay in the United States.
Kennedy said on Wednesday, "If we want to save our democracy, we need to decentralize. Bitcoin is honest, because no one is in charge."
Dennis Porter, co-founder of the Satoshi Action Fund, and Simon Dixon, founder of BnkToTheFuture, said sources revealed that Trump would announce Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset for the United States at the Bitcoin conference this weekend.