UK Treasury says ‘no plans’ to introduce US-style bitcoin reserve
The UK government’s Treasury department has no plans to launch a strategic bitcoin (BTC) reserve as it deems the cryptocurrency’s volatility to be unsuitable for the UK.
This is according to a spokesperson for the Treasury who responded to Protos’ questions about its position on the US introduction of a strategic BTC reserve and whether or not the UK would follow suit.
According to the spokesperson, “Bitcoin and other crypto assets have been historically volatile assets relative to stable fiat currencies like the US dollar and commodities, such as gold.”
As such, they claimed, “This volatility makes BTC less suitable as a reserve asset for the UK.”
UK isn’t following America’s bitcoin plan
Last Thursday, Donald Trump’s administration established a strategic BTC reserve alongside a “stockpile” for other cryptocurrencies. The reserve will contain BTC obtained from civil and criminal forfeitures and other financial penalties.
It claims it won’t sell any stored BTC and that it will be “maintained as reserve assets of the United States utilized to meet governmental objectives in accordance with applicable law.”
However, Trump didn’t seem to fully understand the reserve when he signed it into existence. At Friday’s crypto summit, attended by CEOs from the likes of Strategy, Coinbase, and Ripple, Trump also said he doesn’t know if the sentiment of holding onto your BTC is right or wrong.
Read more: Bitcoin lobbying group warns UK not to sell its 61,000 bitcoins
According to Trump, America will never sell its BTC. “That’s a little phrase that they have. I don’t know if that’s right or not. Who the hell knows, right? Who knows? Who knows, but so far, it’s been right, and well, let’s keep it that way,” he said.
The UK currently holds around 61,245 BTC worth over $5 billion. Almost all of this sum is made up of a major criminal seizure that took place last year. RSM accounting partners claims the BTC could be sold to help stabilize the UK’s economy, while Bitcoin lobbyists say the UK should refrain from selling and instead work towards keeping the price of BTC up.
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