Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) has announced plans to introduce legislation that would direct the U.S. government to hoard 1 million bitcoins, which would be worth more than $68 billion at current prices.
Occur in Bitcoin Conference 2024 In Nashville, Loomis said the bill would allow the U.S. Treasury to buy bitcoin over five years as a strategic reserve asset to shore up the dollar, likening it to the government’s strategic oil reserve.
“We know from modeling the numbers and previous experience with Bitcoin that it has the potential to be an absolute game changer for the mess the US has gotten itself into with its debt and deficit,” Loomis says.
The senator said that the government will hold the bitcoins in different geographical locations. These assets will only be used to pay off the national debt, and will have to be held for at least twenty years.
Lummis has been one of the most vocal proponents of Bitcoin in Congress. She believes that having Bitcoin would help stabilize the value of the dollar and fight inflation. The national debt recently surpassed $35 trillion.
Her proposal comes after former President Donald Trump backed the idea of creating a U.S. reserve of bitcoin at a conference in Nashville. Trump said he would never sell any of the government’s 210,000 bitcoin holdings.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also called for buying 500 bitcoins per day until a reserve of 4 million bitcoins is built up.
While Lummis acknowledges that her legislation is unlikely to pass before the 2024 election, she believes the growing political interest in bitcoin reserves reflects a fundamental shift. Bitcoin has become a major campaign issue, with both parties seeking to woo the emerging industry.
The Lummis bill represents the government’s most aggressive Bitcoin adoption initiative to date, and while its prospects remain uncertain, the move would legitimize Bitcoin as an economic asset.
Lummis said she is “optimistic” that more bitcoin-focused bills could pass this year as bitcoin moves closer to the political mainstream.