Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that the US should become a global leader in digital assets.
In a new interview with CNBC, Bessent says the United States should welcome crypto-related businesses into the country and take a leadership role in the industry.
“I am a big proponent of the US taking the worldwide lead in crypto. I think we have to bring it onshore and they use our best practices and regulation.”
He also praises the recent action by US President Donald Trump to create a Bitcoin (BTC) reserve, which commits the US to not selling any seized BTC.
According to the White House’s “Crypto Czar,” David Sacks, the US government has sold approximately 195,000 Bitcoin for $366 million, far less than the more than $17 billion it would be worth today.
The US government currently owns $17.05 billion worth of BTC, per data from the blockchain analytics firm Arkham.
Bessent adds that there may eventually be developed an acquisition plan to purchase more Bitcoin for the reserve.
“I think that the Bitcoin reserve, before you can accumulate it, you have to stop selling it. So what we have now is from a seized asset pool…
So the first thing to do is to stop the selling…
After the victims are paid, and all of that, any seized assets will go into this reserve, and then we’ll see what the way forward is for more acquisitions for the reserves.”
Bitcoin is trading for $86,624 at time of writing, flat on the day.
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