Selling Fed Gold to Buy BTC: A New Plan

posted  15 Nov 2024
Photo - Selling Fed Gold to Buy BTC: A New Plan
Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis has proposed a bill that would allow the U.S. to partially sell its gold reserves to invest in Bitcoin. The plan is for the U.S. to acquire 1 million BTC — about 5% of its total supply. At current market prices, such a purchase would cost approximately $90 billion..

We already have the financial assets in the form of gold certificates to convert to Bitcoin
Lummis said in an interview with Bloomberg.
The bill proposes a significant expansion of the strategic Bitcoin reserve that newly elected President Donald Trump had previously discussed. Notably, Polymarket users currently assess the chance of this plan’s implementation at only 31%.

A Bet on Trump’s National Bitcoin Reserve Initiative. Source: polymarket.com

A Bet on Trump’s National Bitcoin Reserve Initiative. Source: polymarket.com

The U.S. government currently holds approximately 200,000 BTC, seized in various criminal operations. Lummis's proposal calls for these, as well as future Bitcoin acquisitions, to be stored for at least 20 years. The aim is to leverage their potential value growth to help pay down the national debt.

Senator Lummis presented her bill during the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville this past July. This announcement followed a speech by Donald Trump, then a presidential candidate, where he revealed plans to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve for the nation.