卖掉美联储黄金储备、买100万枚比特币！特朗普盟友提出大胆计划

Trump's ally in the US Senate has proposed a plan: to sell some of the gold held by the Federal Reserve in order to establish a bitcoin strategic reserves as proposed by the elected president without increasing the government deficit.

Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming plans to introduce a bill when the new Congress convenes next year to achieve this goal. The bill requires the US to purchase 1 million bitcoins, accounting for nearly 5% of the circulating tokens.

Based on current market prices, purchasing this amount of bitcoins would cost about $90 billion, but if the bill is passed and investors purchase before the government, the amount may increase.

Lummis said in an interview with Bloomberg: "We already have financial assets in the form of gold certificates that could be converted into bitcoins. So the impact on the US balance sheet is very neutral."

Lummis's bill would significantly expand Trump's bitcoin strategic reserves plan so far, which involves the government maintaining ownership of approximately 0.2 million bitcoins already held by the US after seizing assets. According to Lummis's bill, these cryptos will be held for at least 20 years, and the assumed appreciation will help reduce the national debt.

However, despite bitcoin enthusiasts taking over the White House and the industry hoping that Congress will be the most crypto-friendly in history, some market observers believe that Lummis's bill, which currently has no bipartisan proposals, will face a tough battle.

According to the pricing from the Polymarket prediction platform based on cryptos, the likelihood of Trump establishing a bitcoin reserve is 31%.

Jennifer J. Schulp, Director of Financial Regulatory Research at the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, said: "This still puts government money on bets, and bitcoin has not proven itself to be a particularly stable asset. The bill requires senators and congressmen to gain greater confidence in its long-term viability leap, when they may not understand cryptocurrencies that well."

Michael Novogratz, the billionaire head of crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital, told Bloomberg Television that he believes the likelihood of the United States establishing a bitcoin strategic reserve is low.

Novogratz predicts that if the U.S. does establish such a stockpile, it will drive the price of the largest digital token to $0.5 million, as other countries may also feel the need to establish similar reserves.

Theoretically, the amount of gold owned by the Federal Reserve is sufficient to buy 1 million bitcoins, with a lot left over. The Federal Reserve's balance sheet lists certificates representing gold held by the Treasury Department, valued at about $11 billion. However, this value is based on the so-called statutory price, which has been fixed at $42.2222 per ounce since 1973. Calculated at the current spot price, the value of this gold would be approximately $675 billion, but liquidating a large amount of government gold brings a risk of lowering market prices.

In July this year, Trump gave a speech at the 'Bitcoin 2024' conference in Nashville, announcing his ambition to establish a government bitcoin reserve.

In his description, the bitcoin reserve will be based on tokens already held by the government, without mentioning the purchase of 1 million bitcoins to increase the reserve, although his ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged this plan at the same conference.

Since Trump won the presidential election last week, the cryptocurrency market has been soaring. Bitcoin's record-breaking rise pushed the price of this digital asset above $93,000 on Wednesday, and the overall value of the crypto market has surpassed the peak during the pandemic.

Lummis is optimistic that her bill, the "BITCOIN Act", will gain support in the next Congress. (BITCOIN stands for Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide, a shorthand for promoting innovation, technology, and competitiveness through optimized investment nationwide).

She said, first of all, Trump has already endorsed the idea of establishing reserves, and among his closest advisors is someone who 'understands bitcoin and its role in our future.'

The new majority in the Republican Senate includes legislators friendly to cryptos, such as Republican Bernie Moreno, who defeated incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown in the Ohio Senate race. The super PAC Fairshake, supporting cryptos, spent around $40 million to defeat Brown, an ally of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who has led the agency in cracking down on the crypto industry in recent years. In the 2024 election cycle, the crypto industry spent a total of about $0.135 billion supporting over 50 favored candidates, including Democrats and Republicans.

Lummis said, "New members are joining, including Bernie Moreno from Ohio and Tim Sheehy from Montana, both of whom understand digital assets. 'The cavalry' is arriving in Washington."