Former US Treasury Secretary Criticizes Trump’s 5-Year Bitcoin Reserve Plan

Key Points:

• Former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers criticized the proposal for a national Bitcoin reserve.
• President-elect Trump’s allies propose expanding federal Bitcoin holdings to reduce national debt, with plans for potential revaluation of gold assets to fund purchases.

Former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers lambasted the idea of the government creating a national Bitcoin reserve, referring to it as an unworkable and political concept.

Read more: Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Driven by 5-Year Commitment to Buy BTC

Former US Treasury Secretary Discounts National Bitcoin Reserve

Speaking on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week, the former US Treasury Secretary said:

“Some of what is being said — this idea that we should have some kind of national Bitcoin reserve — is crazy.”

Summers’ comments come amid proposals by allies of President-elect Donald Trump, including the idea of expanding federal holdings of Bitcoin, which are estimated at 200,000 tokens, acquired originally through asset seizures.

Proponents argue that the Treasury could use Bitcoin’s expected appreciation to retire the national debt while decentralizing storage and revaluing gold certificates to finance additional purchases.

While giving kudos to the potential of financial innovation, Summers did draw a line. “Crypto has been over-regulated by over-zealous regulators,” he said, emphasizing the need for balanced oversight.

The former US Treasury Secretary is also in doubt over the rationality of government intervention to support Bitcoin. According to him, it is not like maintaining an oil reserve or holding gold.

“Why would the government choose to support, by accumulating a sterile inventory, a bunch of Bitcoin?”

Bitcoin Surges Beyond $104K Amid Pro-Crypto Policies

Separately, Summers also voiced scepticism over proposals to cut federal spending by $2 trillion, which was suggested by Elon Musk, who is due to co-chair the Department of Government Efficiency advisory panel. He noted that the entire federal payroll comes in under that figure, and that would be quite an endeavour.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin continued its astral rise, crossing 104,000$ amidst optimism. According to analysts, this price increase can be explained by Trump’s being a crypto-friendly president and good old post-halving dynamics.

The reserve proposal further vitalized the crypto sphere, with many predicting the possible surge in institutional attractiveness for Bitcoin, hence accelerating its rate of growth.