Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that Bitcoin will be “part of the basket” of hard currencies that his administration will use to back the US dollar.
The past few months have been promising for the institutional adoption of Bitcoin. Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) however has taken the scope of Bitcoin adoption a step further, vowing to gradually back the US dollar with Bitcoin if he’s elected president.
RFK is the nephew of the assassinated former president John F. Kennedy, and he appears to be following the principles laid out under his uncle’s leadership. Speaking at a July 19 Heal-the-Divide PAC event, Kennedy said that JFK understood “the dangers of having pure fiat currency with no other option,” pointing out that JFK issued gold and silver certificates that were discontinued after his death.
Bitcoin would be “part of the basket” of hard currencies that the new Kennedy administration will encourage the proliferation and propagation of.
“My plan would be to start very, very small; perhaps 1% of issued T-bills would be backed by hard currency, by gold, silver, platinum or Bitcoin,” he said.
“Backing dollars and U.S. debt obligations with hard assets could help restore strength back to the dollar, rein in inflation and usher in a new era of American financial stability, peace and prosperity.”
Kennedy argued that the former JFK administration understood that the giant aggregation and unbalanced distribution of wealth is the “ultimate yield of every fiat currency”. He warned that constant inflation is a threat to the American economy, leading to the “ultimate the destruction of the dollar as the global currency.”
Bitcoin-US dollar conversion would be exempt from capital gains taxes under RFK’s policy, namely to incentivise growth in the US instead of other crypto-friendly jurisdictions such as Singapore.
The presidential hopeful also reaffirmed his commitment to self-custody, as well as the capacity of American citizens to run nodes inside their homes, taking into account fair energy policies.
Read more: Democrat and Republican presidential candidates agree on one thing – Bitcoin must stay
The democratic hopeful’s comments come two months after the 2024 Bitcoin Conference in Miami, where he pronounced, “As President, I will make sure that your right to hold and use Bitcoin is inviolable, I will defend the right of self-custody.”
A defining moment in Kennedy’s pro-Bitcoin approach came in 2022 when Canadian officials used data tracking systems to freeze the bank accounts of truckers who were protesting Covid rules.
“When I witnessed this cataclysm,” Kennedy said, “this devastating use of government repression, I realised for the first time how free money is as important a freedom as free expression.”
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