Opinion: Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is simply a scam

WASHINGTON – Imagine President Bill Clinton creating a strategic Beanie Baby Reserve.

Or if President Joe Biden created a stockpile of Hunter Biden painting assets and encouraged investment in products that happened to be like that to enrich his son.

Here, on a real world planet, President Donald Trump is lucky to have the worst world of both worlds, corruption, creating strategic Bitcoin reserves and digital assets stockpiling cryptocurrencies that are even more volatile than Bitcoin.

Trump’s plan sparked rage across the political spectrum from people who actually know how the economy and money work.

“We’re looking forward to seeing you in the process of exploring the world,” said Jason Furman, top economist at the Barack Obama White House.

“They don’t do anything, so you never need these tokens,” said Peter Schiff, who runs Europacific’s capital management. “They’re just used to gambling.”

Even Avik Roy was once the top policy advisor to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who believes he will stockpile Bitcoin for his special supply and wide acceptance, but it’s a good way to hedge what he considers as an upcoming budget and financial crisis — sees the reason for “line in the pocket” of “random bulbonbillionbilliones.”

Just like in the summer of 2021, Trump had no problem explaining the code for what it was: “Bitcoin, it seems like a scam” – specifically, “the bigger fool” scam relies on finding someone who has given up enough money to find more than you did for something that has little intrinsic value.

Then supporters of such things began to come to him with a scheme where he could cash out some of that simple fake money. First, there was a “digital” Trump trading card. Comic images of Trump as a race car driver, as well as Trump such as astronauts, were featured, and profited from the NFT epidemic, which peaked in 2022.

Then there were much more favorable opportunities. Last September, he and his sons launched World Liberty Financial. This is a brokerage company where families can make money.

It happened shortly after Crypto supporters began begging him on a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago and a pilgrimage to Super PACS, which supports efforts to reclaim the White House with six- and seven-figure donations. Overall, the crypto industry spent $119 million and in September elicited a promise to make the US the world’s “crypto capital.”

Then, three days before his inauguration, Trump took corruption to a whole new level. Instead of selling from a company or falling into blind trust, Trump has created a method that anyone can’t track by purchasing his own crypto “coin” as he did before.

And last weekend, Trump quickly sold short stampedes and then three lesser known crypto “coins” by boosting them on social media while playing a round of golf. (The White House did not respond to questions about these specific coins.)

When “Crypto Summit” Trump was convened at the White House on Friday, he revealed that a complete reversal on the topic was completed.

The actual order Trump signed on Thursday wasn’t as bad as critics feared. It says that it can’t purchase any more Bitcoin or other crypto “assets” seized by the federal government in criminal or civil lawsuits and use taxpayer money.

Still, Trump’s executive orders will benefit the industry in great interest, regardless of what else may come. The biggest one is legitimacy.

Cryptocrats have always relied on sales theory that “confuses them with BS.” Indeed, when asked what Crypto is useful to consumers and society as a whole, they usually start to throw jargon. web3! defi! Blockchain! Turned into a token!

Like the adult citizens of “the emperor’s new clothes,” the unconventional person feels embarrassed to go with the genius of the outlet, and buy the code themselves.

The federal government’s accusation is a great gift for those trying to convince Americans that Crypto is not just the latest, more refined Nigerian prince email scam. Furthermore, if the US government holds certain cryptocurrencies with the intention of never selling them, it will help set floor prices. This, of course, enriches those who already own it.

Normalization of encryption as an “asset” doesn’t bring about bond-like profits, generate dividends like stocks, and can’t live like home, but that’s exactly what the huge financial industry has evolved to exploit the desires of people to buy imaginary money. There are securities companies that support the purchase and sale of cryptographic products. There are even mutual funds from formerly respectable investment companies, layered above actual crypto content creators. Get slices whenever you buy and sell from them.

Finally, the official federal entrance to Crypto Holders’ Club could be the ultimate camel nose. This week’s executive order also mentions the possibility of Bitcoin acquisition if it is “budget neutral.” These are two weasel terms currently being used to characterize a nearly $5 trillion extension of Trump’s tax cuts.

The Crypto Battle moves up Pennsylvania Avenue to Congress. There, they’ve already expanded their skids for laws that allow taxpayer money to be put into the crypto billionaires’ pockets. With Trump’s election, they have already ended the prosecutions against money launderers and fraudsters and the Wild West. Now they’ll want more.

In Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, the emperor needed a little boy to state the obvious that he had no clothes and was actually naked. On our real world planet, to maintain opportunities, that little boy would be better armed with hundreds of millions of real campaign dollars to fight people the industry is already spending.