Sen. Cynthia Lummis: There's an appetite to do a statutory framework for digital assets

joining us right now uh on what she sees ahead for crypto policy under Trump Wyoming Republican senator uh Cynthia lumus good morning to you uh we've all been looking at this price trying to understand why it's moving this way uh it clearly has to do with this new Administration and what comes next but my question to you actually is what comes next in terms of policy that would manifest in a way that would justify the move in these prices I think the answer is twofold uh one is we there's an appetite now to do a

statutory framework for digital assets Senator Kirsten gilland and I have been working on that for years uh will now move to that in early 2025 as opposed to later in 2025 the other thing is the proposal that I have and that uh president Trump has discussed about a strategic Bitcoin Reserve or strategic Bitcoin stockpile where the United States would acquire and hold Bitcoin for 20 years because of the way that Bitcoin has been appreciating since Inception this would be an asset that could help Shore up the US dollar as the world Reserve currency and serve

as um a uh Reserve that could be used to to uh reduce the national debt significantly you know the American people are still hurting from inflation from high prices uh and they want the national debt reduced uh these are ways to do it with an asset that is immutable uh can easily be held by the federal government in a variety of uh vaults uh and that states can participate in as well so this is the uh gold state standard digital asset uh and a strategic Bitcoin Reserve is the way to embed it you know we

got off the gold standard along time ago my question is how much you would spend tax dollars at a time where we're talking about trying to reduce costs how much would you spend on bitcoin as part of this Reserve uh we wouldn't have to spend any new dollars we have Reserves at our 12 federal reserve banks including gold certificates that could be converted to current fair market value they're held at their 1970s value on the books and then sell them uh into Bitcoin uh that way we wouldn't have to use any new dollars in order

to establish this reserve the United States already holds over 200,000 Bitcoin in the asset forat funds so that would be the initial Source uh of Bitcoin so no new money spent on this Reserve Senator let me ask you a different question do you own Bitcoin yourself well I I might um I had five Bitcoin uh and put them along with other uh stocks I owned into a uh blind trust um I hope they're still there in my blind trust but it's blind so I don't know what do you think about other uh members of either

this Administration or of Congress that may own Bitcoin I asked because clearly one of the questions that invariably will come up is you know we were just talking to Mike novr he said look the whole Administration are they're Bitcoin owners therefore this is going to be positive for Bitcoin because they want Bitcoin to go up the other side of some brains in the world hear that and say well that's a conflict well I get it Ellen um Bitcoin is a commodity so it's a lot like um cattle I own cattle and yet nobody wants me

to divest thank God uh of my cattle um it's so we have to remember a few things about Bitcoin that are unique Bitcoin is legal tender in another country and we need to recognize that as Americans Bitcoin is a store of value and a means of exchange that is has characteristics of a commodity so it's very different from other assets quite frankly I believe it should be okay for people to own Bitcoin without doing what I did and putting it in a blind trust but to be inordinately careful since I was the earliest and biggest

advocate for Bitcoin um it seemed to just help me credibly sell it to my fellow policy makers if I put it in a blind Trust