This version of the story appeared on CNN’s What Matters Newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
CNN
–
When President Donald Trump addressed the nation from Capitol Hill on Tuesday, he would have the first opportunity to sell Americans and Congress with his new proposal that the United States needs to strategically prepare cryptocurrency.
This is a plan announced Sunday in a social media post more than an hour away, raising clear questions of conflicts of interest for both Trump and his code emperor, and can nourish the brewing plot about Fort Knox.
In the first post, three small, lesser known cryptocurrencies, XRP, Solana and Cardano, spiked prices temporarily.
Over an hour later, he added that Bitcoin and ether, the largest and most well-known cryptocurrencies, will also be involved.
Trump has been talking for a while about creating such a sanctuary, part of his pledge to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world.” Beyond the policy aspects of cryptography, he also has a personal interest.
The company that owns Trump’s social media network and is Trump’s biggest shareholder recently revealed plans to invest $250 billion in the cryptocurrency industry.
Separately, last week the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its civil fraud lawsuit against Justin Sun. Justin Sun is a Chinese businessman who poured $75 million into a crypto token that could benefit Trump’s family in the future. As CNN’s Allison Moreau had been paying attention to at the time, it’s 180 for the agency since the Biden administration, which was working on cryptocurrency regulation.
The value of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin has skyrocketed after Trump’s election, but has been stagnant in recent weeks. But Trump’s move out of restrictions is exactly what the libertarian-oriented tech billionaire who supported his campaign is.
Trump has appointed one of them, David Sacks, to become the Cryptocratic and AI Emperor in his administration. Sacks has not released financial disclosures and the terms of his employment are not clear, but after Trump’s post about strategic reserves spiked the value of the cryptocurrency, Sacks said on X that he sold all of the cryptocurrency before he joined the administration. However, his corporate craft venture is invested in Bitwise, an asset manager that provides crypto index funds.
Cryptocurrency evangelists say the US, which takes a bold position on Bitcoin, can pay off its national debt at some point in the future.
Investor Michael Saylor said his company MicroStrategy has over $50 billion in Bitcoin, CNBC said Monday that if the US buys 10-20% of the world’s Bitcoin network (over decades), it will ultimately be worth trillions of dollars.
“What’s convincing about that is if the US gains position in the emerging crypto economy. If they buy 10 or 20% of the Bitcoin network, will they pay off their citizen debt?
But for all Bitcoin evangelists, I point out that there are academics or bankers across the political spectrum, and that cryptocurrency investments could easily rise to smoke.
Trump claims that the US can simply take over 200,000 bitcoins currently being seized through criminal and civil lawsuits, and starts building from there.
Other proposals, like Sen. Cynthia Ramis, a Wyoming Republican, have proposed that they redeploy the funds from the Federal Reserve to buy Bitcoin and redeploy the money to use the US government’s gold reserves to raise funds for Bitcoin reserves.
Both Trump and Musk recently discussed planning a trip to Fort Knox to make sure the money is still there and feeding conspiracy theories. During Trump’s first administration, CNN used the public record demand to obtain photos of then-Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin and former Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell even wrote his name on the wall.
It’s not clear that Congress has a desire to tinker with gold reserves or use taxpayer money to buy Bitcoin, but insiders will have the opportunity to talk about it when insiders hold a Crypto Summit on Friday at the White House for “prominent founders, CEOs and investors from the CRYPTO industry.”
Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, appealed to X that Trump should not attempt to cut down on the size of his government, while also trying to invest American money in Bitcoin.
“While he suffocates cancer research and fires VA researchers, the president uses your taxpayer dollars to buy codes and enrich his personal allies,” she said.
