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After former President Donald Trump alluded to creating some sort of bitcoin reserve in the United States, Republican Senator and long-time crypto advocate Cynthia Lummis came through with the receipts.
Over the weekend, Trump addressed a crowd of roughly 10,000 for an hour at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville. Among his promises to the industry were vows to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler “on day one,”— which legal experts say he may not be able to do — and commute the sentence of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who has been incarcerated since his conviction in 2015.
Trump’s biggest pledge of all on Saturday was to “keep 100% of all bitcoin the US government currently holds or acquires.” He did not specifically mention the DOJ or US Marshals Service, which periodically auction off seized cryptocurrencies, although he hinted at them.
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“As you know, most of the bitcoin currently held by the United States government was obtained through law enforcement action,” Trump said. “You know that they took it from you. Let’s take that guy’s life. Let’s take his family. His house. His bitcoin.”
He said nothing about buying bitcoin specifically, instead saying he hoped to create a “strategic national bitcoin stockpile.”
In the moments after Trump left the stage, Lummis emerged with a stack of papers she said was a bill promising to do just that.
“Here it is,” the senator said, holding up the bundle. “This is the Bitcoin Reserve Bill.”
The bill, which has not yet made it to the Senate floor, seeks to have the US government acquire 1 million BTC — roughly 5% of the global supply. That BTC would only be sold to decrease national debt, according to Lummis.
“We will be debt-free because of bitcoin,” Lummis said.
With the close of this Congressional session quickly approaching, and an election to complete, substantial movement on the bill is unlikely. Lummis did say that she has the support of “additional cosponsors,” although they are yet to be announced.
The bill announcement came a day after Lummis and fellow Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina took the stage in Nashville to discuss the status of crypto-focused legislation in Congress.
Despite some bipartisan support for crypto legislation in recent months, Lummis maintained that real progress will only come with a Republican sweep in November.
“There are serious people in the way of making sure that American innovation is leading global innovation, and we have to get rid of the folks who are in the way, most of whom are on the Senate Banking Committee,” Lummis said. “Republicans are going to be in the majority next year and Senator Tim Scott is going to be the Chairman [of the Senate Banking Committee].”
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A group of 28 Democratic federal and local legislators, plus several candidates, beg to differ. The cohort last week penned a letter to Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison asking for party leadership to take a more favorable stance on crypto.
“There is a public perception that the party holds a negative viewpoint on digital assets, largely due to the current SEC’s approach to these transformative technologies. We believe this previous hostility does not reflect our Party’s progressive, forward-looking and inclusive values,” the letter read. “A refreshed leader of the ticket represents an opportunity to change that perception.”