Key Points
- U.S. Representative Gerald Connolly has asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to stop plans to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
- Connolly cited potential conflicts of interest between President Trump and his allies as the reason for his concern.
U.S. Representative Gerald Connolly has made a plea to U.S Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Connolly has requested that Bessent halt any attempts to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Connolly’s concern stems from a perceived conflict of interest between President Trump and his close associates.
Bitcoin Reserves and Transparency
Connolly, who is also a ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reforms (COGC), observed that Congress has previously created reserves for commodities with strategic value. Examples include petroleum, which could be utilized during economic crises.
However, Connolly does not see similar value in the “volatile, cryptocurrency market”. He suggests that such a venture would be a “bad deal” for taxpayers.
He pointed to potential conflicts of interest, such as the official TRUMP memecoin and the President’s family links to the DeFi platform World Liberity Financial. Connolly also highlighted Elon Musk’s influence, through DOGE, on key agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and his past promotion of Dogecoin.
Furthermore, Connolly has claimed that President Trump’s AI and crypto czar, David Sacks, remains a partner at Craft Ventures, a digital asset investing firm, despite his claims of having sold his cryptocurrency prior to joining the Administration.
However, it should be noted that Sacks is off ethics review and the White House has stated that he has already divested from Craft Ventures and other crypto investments.
In an effort to prevent potential conflicts of interest between the President and his allies, Connolly has asked Secretary Bessent to provide key documents. These documents may be related to the creation of the crypto reserves and financial disclosures from members of the Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.
In related news, Senator Cynthia Lummis has re-introduced the Bitcoin Act. This act aims to provide a formal legal framework for the Bitcoin reserves.