Trace Mayer, a well-known early Bitcoin podcaster who began buying currency purchases for $0.25, has expressed doubts about the US government’s ability to acquire a significant portion of its Bitcoin supply.
While evangelists like Strategy Executive Chair Michael Saylor and Senator Cynthia Ramis have touted the 5 million BTC figures as an achievable and desirable goal for the country, Mayer raised questions about the idea in a latest interview with the Supply Shock Podcast.
Speaking to host Petitrizzo at the Digital Assets Summit in New York, Mayer, who is believed to own more than 25,000 BTC, said such a strategy would have a major impact on global Bitcoin prices:
“They’re going to struggle…where are they trying to get 5 million coins? How many coins have been added to the ETF? … (in the meantime), the price has moved from $30,000 to $80,000.”
Elsewhere, Mayer proposed alternative strategies to encourage government adoption and accumulation of Bitcoin.
“Maybe if you pay taxes with them, you don’t need to pay capital gains taxes on Bitcoin or crypto profits. That could be a way to induce more supplies,” Mayer said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sehul3atiu
Still, while acknowledging that Bitcoin is a “geopolitical asset,” Mayer questioned the urgency for the US to accelerate its control in space. “Why would it be in the US profitable to accelerate it faster than it needs? Because they might pay a higher cost than what they would otherwise have to pay.”
Mayer went so far as to speculate that America could pursue a strategy to maintain control of the US dollar while integrating Bitcoin into the US financial system.
“It could maintain the world’s reserve currency, emit all other countries of physical bullion, and control it as well as those that could challenge gold,” he advised. “You have a way of integrating it into your financial system, sitting it on your company’s balance sheet, and having policies that own and hold it, promoting financial innovation, and you have a way of controlling it.”
Mayer also suggested that the US could “extend your dollar with a stable rock” to influence the “financial sovereignty” of other superpowers.
This may find America behaving like a superpower, but Mayer quickly realized that Bitcoin is money and money is a power at the world stage. He didn’t know how Bitcoin would restructure its global power structure, but he pointed out that it would definitely do so.
“This is incredibly exciting,” he told Lizzo, saying that Bitcoin “meets its fate” simply as “the world reserve settlement currency.”
