11:39 - 9.12.2024

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December 9, Fineko/abc.az. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers called president-elect Donald Trump's plan to create a strategic reserve in bitcoins a "madness".

"I understand why we need a national oil reserve, why we accumulated gold in Fort Knox a hundred years ago. Of all the values that need to be supported, why is the government's choice to accumulate a barren commodity in the form of a pile of bitcoins?" he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

ABC.AZ reports that in his opinion, the only reason for such a move is the "indulgence of generous campaign sponsors" of Trump from the crypto industry.

At the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, the politician put forward the idea that the government should not sell confiscated bitcoins. Assets should serve as the basis for a national strategic reserve. At that time, the authorities controlled 213,239 BTC.

Regarding cryptocurrencies, Summers noted in an interview the need to support financial innovation. He added that some of them, including digital assets, are likely to be over-regulated.

Trump nominated David Sachs from the PayPal Mafia for the position of "crypto tsar". One of the tasks of the specialist will be to work on the regulatory framework for the industry.