Bitcoin is ‘the right asset’ to combat the US deficit: Sen. Lummis

With President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House quickly approaching, investors weigh the prospect of a strategic bitcoin (BTC-USD) reserve. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), who introduced the bipartisan Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act focused on regulating crypto, joins Catalysts Co-Hosts Seana Smith and Madison Mills to talk about her stance on the Federal Reserve holding bitcoin.

“I want our federal government to have a strategic bitcoin reserve that can help back the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency and then serve as a long-term savings account, thereby offsetting our national debt, which is over $36 trillion now,” Lummis tells Yahoo Finance.

The republican senator says, “My proposal would have the US purchase, through other assets that already owns, 200,000 bitcoin a year for five years, for a total of a million, hold it for at least 20 years, and at the numbers that we project, that would accrue a fund that’s worth about $16 trillion.”

Lummis adds the reason why the federal government has not already pursued bitcoin as a solution to the national deficit is because, as indicated by Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the Fed’s Decemeber meeting, it doesn’t believe the central bank has the legal authority to own bitcoin. “We need to give that to them,” she says.

Check out Yahoo Finance’s full interview with Senator Lummis here. Also catch Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) discuss crypto regulation and Trump’s pick for Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with Yahoo Finance.

To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Catalysts here.

This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.