Flurry Of Politicians Advocate For Investing Public Funds Into Bitcoin

Politicians are increasingly considering investing public funds into Bitcoin.

On July 25, Steven Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City, tweeted that he plans to allocate 2% of Jersey City’s pension fund into Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Fulop said he is currently updating paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to formalize the investment and mobilize the funds “by the end of summer.”

“I’ve been a long-time believer… in crypto,” Fulop said. “The question on whether crypto/Bitcoin is here to stay is largely over [—] crypto/Bitcoin won.”

Fulop took inspiration from the Wisconsin Pension Fund, which purchased $160 million worth of shares in the Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock and Grayscale last month. While the purchase only equated to 0.1% of the fund’s nearly $160 billion portfolio, David Krause, the Marquette University Associate Professor of Emeritus Finance, said he expects the fund to increase its exposure to between 1% of 2% of the fund’s assets over time.

The tweet came one day after Robert F Kennedy, an independent presidential candidate, said he would want the U.S. Federal Reserve to invest in Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset — targeting an eventual allocation on par with its gold holdings during a panel at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville.

“I would like to have the federal government begin to buy Bitcoin and over my term in office, ultimately, have an equivalent amount of Bitcoin that we have gold,” Kennedy said. “It’s a currency that is based on Proof of Work. Everything’s on the ledger, it’s decentralized, and that’s what we need to do with democracy.”

With the U.S. government ranking as the world’s largest gold investor with $615 billion worth of the precious metal, the U.S. central bank would be looking to accumulate 46% of Bitcoin’s supply based on current prices.

Kennedy doesn’t appear to be alone in wanting the U.S. Federal Reserve to accumulate BTC.

On July 24, Fox Business reported that Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis is working on a bill requiring the U.S. central bank to invest in Bitcoin as part of its strategic reserve asset holdings. The report cited “three crypto executives with knowledge of the bill,” claiming Lummis is seeking co-sponsorship from her Senate Banking Committee colleagues and may announce the legislation during the Bitcoin 2024 conference.

The news comes as the political mood regarding cryptocurrency appears to be turning, with the former U.S. president and Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, recently going to great lengths to court the crypto industry.

All eyes are now on the new presidential nominee from the Democratic Party, Kamala Harris, with crypto industry advocates calling on Harris to similarly run on a pro-crypto platform in contrast to the hostile regulatory environment overseen by the Biden administration.

While Harris is yet to announce a policy platform regarding web3, Mark Cuban, the billionaire tech investor, revealed the Harris campaign recently contacted him regarding crypto.

Bitcoin’s price is up 3.8% over the past 24 hours, according to The Defiant’scrypto price feeds.