(Kitco News) – The list of politicians calling on the U.S. government to purchase and hold Bitcoin (BTC) as a strategic reserve asset continues to grow, with Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. becoming the latest to advocate for holding the top crypto in the Treasury.
Kennedy spoke during industry day at Bitcoin 2024, the annual Bitcoin conference currently underway in Nashville, Tennesse, where he unveiled a plan that could see the U.S. become the world’s largest BTC holder.
During a conference panel with Roundtable’s Scott Melker and Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin Long, RFK Jr. admonished the Federal Reserve, saying the central bank had the interest of bankers, not the general public, at heart.
“The relationship between Congress and the Fed is both parasitical to our country, and it’s a symbiotic relationship,” he said. “The Fed is not a public institution … The decision-makers are appointed by the banking industry. Its function with these cycles of quantitative easing followed by high interest rates are… strip-mining cash and equity from the American middle class and pumping it upward to this new oligarchy of billionaires.”
"The coup de grâce was the lockdowns during Covid, which shut down all the small business in this country, which is what we should be nurturing, and kept open the Walmarts, and the Amazons, and Facebook, and the oil industry, and the processed food industries, and Big Ag, they all flourished during that period,” he added. “And meanwhile, Main Street just got liquidated.”
To help start the process of leveling the playing field and returning the U.S. to a system of sound money, Kennedy recommended the creation of a basket of hard currencies and other assets that could be used to provide solid backing for the U.S. dollar.
“I would be willing to add Bitcoin to the balance sheet. I’m going to do that. I’m gonna actually do a basket of hard currencies of maybe platinum and gold and other hard currencies and begin issuing at least the class of Treasury bills that are anchored to hard currency,” he said. “Let’s say the first year by 1% and then maybe the next year by 2% to watch how that goes because that will inject discipline into the product and ultimately get up to 100%.”
“I would like to have the federal government begin to buy Bitcoin and over my term of office [and] ultimately have an equivalent amount of Bitcoin that we have gold,” he added. “Because Bitcoin is an honest currency, it’s a currency that’s based upon proof of work.”
The plan, as laid out by RFK Jr., would see the government purchase enough BTC to equal the amount they hold in gold – currently estimated at 8,134 tons worth approximately $615 billion.
According to data provided by Arkham, the Department of Justice currently holds 213,239 Bitcoin that were acquired through various enforcement actions, meaning that to achieve Kennedy’s goal, the Treasury would need to acquire more than 9 million additional BTC at the current market price – equal to 45% of all the BTC that will ever exist.
For perspective, MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, owns 226,331 BTC, and BlackRock, the largest spot Bitcoin ETF manager, controls 334,000 BTC.
Kennedy said the goal of the move is to redefine monetary policy and enhance fiscal discipline within the federal government.
He also appealed to the crypto community’s ideals of personal freedom, property rights, and governmental integrity, saying, “Bitcoin is not only an offramp to this inflationary highway which is the highway to hell, but it also is a way of restoring integrity to our government. It’s a way of restoring personal freedoms, it’s a way the middle class can isolate itself from inflation, which is just a form of government theft.”
As president, he vowed to reform the Fed, block the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), and end “money printing” to fund budget deficits.
Kennedy also noted that, as opposed to Trump, he has been on the Bitcoin bandwagon for some time, telling one group of interviewers that after being the keynote speaker at the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami, he “went home and put most of my wealth into Bitcoin. I’m fully committed.”
?RFK JR: "I am a huge supporter of Bitcoin. I have most of my wealth in Bitcoin. I am fully committed." pic.twitter.com/GrDB8nSirI
— Autism Capital ? (@AutismCapital) July 26, 2024
He added that many of his views were opposed by Trump only a short time ago until it clicked that 50 million Bitcoin investors are likely U.S. voters, leading to Trump’s pro-crypto pivot. While Trump has gained favor with some in the crypto crowd, many in the community remain skeptical about his motives and question the sincerity of his newfound love for all things blockchain.
Kennedy also differs from Trump on one key issue: debt and spending. During Trump’s time in office, the national debt rose nearly 33%. RFK’s supporters argue that Trump being re-elected will see another increase in spending, pushing the national debt – which is approaching $35 trillion – even higher.
Kennedy, on the other hand, has stressed the importance of a balanced budget and sees digital assets as a way for all Americans to build wealth. As an example of RFK’s dedication to reducing spending and increasing transparency, he told a crowd during a rally in Michigan that he wanted to “put the entire U.S. budget on blockchain so that every American can look at every budget item in the entire budget anytime they want 24 hours a day.”
