Amid growing rumors that President Donald Trump wants to establish a U.S. Bitcoin reserve, rival presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he’d take things an enormous step further.
During a Wednesday interview, the independent candidate said he’d push the federal government to buy Bitcoin until the size of its BTC holdings matched the nation’s gold reserves.
The U.S. government is the world’s largest owner of gold, boasting 8,134 tons of the precious metal. At current prices, that’s $615 billion worth of gold. Matching that value in Bitcoin would require a whopping 9.4 million BTC at the current price, or nearly 45% of the total supply that will ever be mined.
“Bitcoin is an honest currency,” Kennedy said in a conversation with Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin Long, hosted by YouTuber Scott Melker. “It’s a currency that’s based on proof of work. Everything’s on the ledger, it’s decentralized, and that’s what we need to do with democracy.”
Such a massive Bitcoin allocation would align with Kennedy’s previously announced plans to back both government currency and debt with a basket of hard currencies, naming gold, silver, platinum, and BTC as viable investments.
He expanded on these plans on Wednesday, saying a new class of U.S. Treasury bills could be “anchored” to that basket by 1% in its first year, 2% in the second year, and ultimately 100% over time.
The country’s Bitcoin acquisition, however, would occur during Kennedy’s first four years in office alone.
“I would like to have the federal government begin to buy Bitcoin and over my term in office, ultimately have an equivalent amount of Bitcoin that we have gold,” he said.
If that happens, the United States would easily be the world’s largest BTC holder by today’s standards. The vaunted MicroStrategy, the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin owner, currently has 226,331 BTC worth $14.41 billion. BlackRock, the world’s largest Bitcoin ETF, controls 334,000 BTC worth $21.73 billion.
As the price of BTC rises, the government wouldn’t need to stack 9 million BTC before reaching its $615 billion benchmark—though it would surely still make the United States one of the world’s most dominant owners. An acquisition plan of this magnitude would create an unprecedented windfall for BTC investors during Kennedy’s term.
Kennedy previously promised to scrap capital gains taxes on BTC, which would incentivize the Bitcoin industry to stay in the United States.
“If we want to save our democracy, we need to decentralize,” Kennedy said Wednesday. “Bitcoin is honest because there’s nobody in charge.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.