The U.S. government holds approximately 378,372 Bitcoins worth more than $24 billion, according to data from Arcam Research. However, more than a year after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, no new Bitcoins have been purchased.
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The government does not go beyond the digital assets it already owns through criminal seizures. David Bailey, a former crypto adviser in the Trump administration, says that gap says it all.
Love Isn’t Enough: Bailey
“It’s not enough just to like Bitcoin,” Bailey said at the Bitcoin Investor Weekly conference in New York City last week. He spoke candidly about the difference between political goodwill and actual action.
His view: President Trump’s support for Bitcoin is genuine, but support alone does not move markets or policy.
Spending political funds is the difficult part.
Bailey said the administration has taken an important first step. However, he argued that the first step does not automatically lead to the next step.
Without the will to overcome resistance from budget hardliners, skeptical lawmakers, and a political system that does not easily abide by new fiscal ideas, preliminary orders will remain largely symbolic.
White House AI and Cryptocurrency Coordinator David Sachs reportedly acknowledged the challenge early on.
Just two months after the executive order was signed, Sachs said increasing the government’s Bitcoin holdings would require a “budget-neutral” approach, meaning no new taxes or new debt.
This constraint has proven difficult to work around. No framework has been published on how this will be met.
Mr. Bailey did not shy away from using harsh words. “Unless there is a willingness to incur the political capital required to move the various cogs needed to move the ball forward, the outcome is the same whether politicians like Bitcoin or not,” he said.
He insisted on the difference between expressing an opinion and doing the work to support it.
Bailey says Bitcoin will win either way
Despite the criticism, Bailey stopped short of pessimism. He told the conference audience that government action is not needed for Bitcoin to survive or grow. The problem he framed was nothing more than a timing issue.
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“Whether it’s in four years, 10 years, or 20 years, we’re going to get to a point where we actually have a government that abides by the rules that are necessary for Bitcoin to be successful,” he said.
Mr. Bailey now runs Bitcoin finance company KindlyMD and has revealed that he is focused on increasing his ownership rather than waiting for Washington to respond.
More Bitcoin owners mean more voters with a personal stake in pro-Bitcoin policies, he argued, which makes adoption inevitable over time.
Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView
