In an interview with Yahoo Finance, US Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming outlined a proposal to give the Federal Reserve the authority to hold Bitcoin as part of the United States’ official reserves. She argues that this approach could improve the country’s long-term financial stability, strengthen the U.S. dollar’s global role and provide a valuable hedge against the country’s skyrocketing national debt, which now exceeds $36 trillion.
Authority to own Bitcoin
“My proposal is for the US to purchase 200,000 BTC annually for five years, for a total of one million, through other assets it already owns,” Lummis reiterated her plans. “We would hold it for at least 20 years, and at the numbers we are forecasting, that would add up to a fund worth about $16 trillion.” We would like our federal government to have a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR), which can help support the US dollar, the world reserve currency, and then serve as a long-term savings account to offset our national debt.”
The senator’s comments are in direct contradiction to the current stance of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. At the Federal Open Market Committee’s recent press conference, Powell reiterated that the Federal Reserve Act prohibits the institution from owning it. “We are not allowed to own Bitcoin. The Federal Reserve Act says what we cannot own [it]and we are not seeking a change in the law. That’s the thing that Congress should consider, but we’re not seeking a legislative change at the Fed,” Powell noted Wednesday.
Lummis acknowledged this legal hurdle but remained committed to changing the conversation in Congress…
