Why did that Trump position alarm you? Fortunately, it's one of the many things that he says that's either wrong, illegal, or not possible. And when he says he's going to keep 100%. I don't know that he realized that some of that money is from the victims of scams, hacks, ransomware. It has to go back legally. And it's been stockpiled largely because it couldn't go back due to some contracting issues. I think the concerning part is that Trump has a tendency to say what people want to hear and not necessarily what's even remotely feasible or legal. Of course, this calls for a stockpile. The US holds, what, about $12 billion worth of crypto? At the moment, variously bitcoin ether as well as tether's stablecoin. How just go through the motions of how the US government decides as and when it should sell its crypto holdings to repay those who are the victims of scams or

or have had ransoms, for example. Well, there's a process, and it's what's called the asset forfeiture process, and it's been established for years. The issue was that for several years, the process by which those funds would be liquidated or sold was held up due to a contracting issue that the U.S. Marshals was having. And only recently, on July 1st, I believe, was it announced that the contract had gone to Coinbase. And so this perception that the government was purposely keeping the funds was actually a contracting glitch, likely in the sense that they were stalling. It was stalling in terms of their ability to liquidate it. But normally, that process would be they would be sold, and the funds would be returned to victims as part of the normal process of either a civil or criminal case. Amanda, I just want to level with our audience. We're talking about this because we thought it would come up last night.

between Musk and Trump, and it just did not. But seeing Gensler, you know, that's the other side of this that you talked about firing. Chair Gensler You know, the mechanics of that working and then trying to get a Bitcoin reserve. I just try understand process why it would work. Yeah. Professor Tonya Evans did a phenomenal article on this in Fortune, I believe, where she talked about the actual impossibility of firing him on day one. And I think, look, there were people actually placing bets on whether Trump would say Bitcoin or crypto last night. And I think it's a disturbing trend that he tends to take money from people who are willing to give it to him. And the crypto community is has been battered for four years by the Biden administration and they are only too happy to head towards somebody who's giving them positive indicators. I think the the Harris campaign has been slower to give positive indicators.

There is a group crypto for Harris that is working on that and is gauging on that. But there have been positive indicators from the Harris campaign privately, just not as publicly as Trump. But I think the crypto community has to decide: do you want somebody who's saying what you want to hear, but it's not possible? Or do you want somebody who's taking their time and deliberating what the policy should be because it actually has a chance?

Trump's Bitcoin Stockpile Plan Alarms Forfeiture Experts

Welcome to the Bloomberg Technology YouTube channel. Subscribe for original series and mini-docs on game-changing technologies, profiles on innovators, live conversations with experts, and breaking technology news & analysis from Bloomberg TV.

Trump's Bitcoin Stockpile Plan Alarms Forfeiture Experts

Trump's Bitcoin Stockpile Plan Alarms Forfeiture Experts

Scripts