The post Trump wants Bitcoin to pay off U.S. debt — but how would that even work? appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

President Donald Trump thinks Bitcoin might be the answer to America’s $36 trillion debt problem. In July, he told a Bitcoin conference that he’d create a “strategic national Bitcoin reserve.” By August, he was joking that: “Who knows, maybe we’ll pay off our $35 trillion, hand them a little crypto check, right?” Then, in September, he pitched the Economic Club of New York on a sovereign wealth fund that could “return a gigantic profit” to help reduce national debt. No sitting U.S. president has ever spoken about Bitcoin like this. Or much at all. But Trump isn’t exactly a details guy. So how realistic is this plan, and how would it even work? What the U.S. government already holds Right now, Uncle Sam holds about 1% of the world’s Bitcoin. This stash comes mainly from criminal seizures, including Bitcoin confiscated from Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road. The Department of Justice controls about 208,109 Bitcoin, worth roughly $21 billion today. That sounds impressive—until you realize the U.S. debt is over $36 trillion. For Bitcoin to pay it all off, each coin would need to be worth $173 million. To put that into perspective, that’s 13.5 times the value of every stock and bond in the world combined. At a glance, Trump’s crypto vision doesn’t seem to add up. To make a dent in the debt, the U.S. would need a lot more Bitcoin. But buying that much isn’t as simple as opening Coinbase and hitting “buy.” Trump would need Congress to approve large-scale purchases—or find a way to bypass Congress entirely. Here’s where things get creative. The Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF), meant for stabilizing currency, has often been used as a presidential slush fund. Past presidents have tapped it to bail out Mexico in 1995, stabilize markets in…

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Filed under: News - @ November 22, 2024 9:30 am