Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made headlines at the Bitcoin 2024 conference when he pledged to buy 4 million bitcoins for the US government if he is elected president. Speaking to a cheering crowd, Kennedy outlined his bold plan to integrate Bitcoin into the national economy.
“I will sign an executive order directing the U.S. Treasury to purchase 550 bitcoins per day until the United States has a reserve of at least 4 million bitcoins,” Kennedy announced. That’s about 20% of the total supply of bitcoin.
Kennedy also said he would move the 204,000 bitcoins currently held by the government into a strategic reserve at the Federal Reserve. He promised that the cascading effect of these moves would “effectively take bitcoin to a valuation of hundreds of trillions of dollars.”
Kennedy hailed Bitcoin as a “currency of hope” and a way to restore financial stability after years of poor monetary policy. “Fiat money was invented to finance war,” Kennedy said, adding that a Bitcoin standard would eliminate incentives for military conflict.
Although Kennedy is not doing well in early polls, his full-throated embrace of bitcoin could help him gain traction among liberal-leaning voters. Kennedy has criticized high inflation and shrinking purchasing power, issues he believes adopting the bitcoin standard would address.
Kennedy also pledged to make bitcoin transactions tax-free and allow bitcoin exchanges to be tax-free. He said bitcoin’s transparency makes it “the greatest enemy of government corruption.”
With Bitcoin becoming a hot topic in the 2024 race, Kennedy is clearly trying to carve out a niche as the most pro-Bitcoin candidate. His call for a massive reserve of 4 million Bitcoin shows that he is willing to take bold positions to appeal to the growing Bitcoin voter base.