{"id":40427,"date":"2025-01-08T17:03:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T17:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/?p=40427"},"modified":"2025-02-18T14:49:35","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T19:49:35","slug":"steve-hanke-is-wrong-about-the-strategic-bitcoin-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/takes\/steve-hanke-is-wrong-about-the-strategic-bitcoin-reserve","title":{"rendered":"Steve Hanke Is Wrong About the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Steve Hanke is wrong about something Bitcoin related once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/steve_hanke\/status\/1876297676842557734\">He\u2019s<\/a>&nbsp;recently taken aim at the idea of the U.S. creating a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/tags\/bitcoin-reserve\">Strategic Bitcoin Reserve<\/a>&nbsp;(SBR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the video embedded in the X post below, Hanke claimed that converting government savings into bitcoin would be a &#8220;drag on the economy&#8221; because those savings wouldn&#8217;t be invested in &#8220;real capital assets that produce things.&#8221; He even doubled down, saying bitcoin doesn&#8217;t build factories, create jobs, or drive innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A US BITCOIN STRATEGIC RESERVE = A STUPID IDEA.<br><br>Savings funneled into Bitcoin aren&#39;t building factories, creating jobs, or driving innovation. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VaH0p7Y835\">pic.twitter.com\/VaH0p7Y835<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/steve_hanke\/status\/1876297676842557734?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">January 6, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I couldn&#8217;t disagree more\u2014and I think his argument completely misses the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let&#8217;s get honest about what a SBR is supposed to do. It&#8217;s not about building factories or creating jobs directly. It&#8217;s about protecting a country&#8217;s economy, hedging against risk, and ensuring long-term economic stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does Hanke think the U.S. should sell its gold and oil reserves or food and weapons stockpiles because they aren&#8217;t &#8220;driving innovation&#8221;? Of course not. Those reserves exist to provide security and stability, not to act like venture capital investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A SBR would work in the same way. It wouldn&#8217;t directly create jobs, but it would provide the U.S. with a hedge against inflation, dollar debasement, and geopolitical risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let&#8217;s face it\u2014the dollar isn&#8217;t as strong as it used to be, and holding bitcoin would give the U.S. a safety net as the world shifts toward decentralized money. It&#8217;s about preparing for the future, not clinging to outdated economic models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hanke also forgets how reserves can provide leverage. If bitcoin becomes the world&#8217;s most valuable asset and the U.S. has established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, it will be ahead of the game. That&#8217;s not just a hedge\u2014it&#8217;s a massive geopolitical advantage. It would strengthen confidence in the U.S. financial system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His take shows he doesn&#8217;t understand what reserves are for. They&#8217;re about risk management and long-term strategy, not short-term job creation. A Strategic Bitcoin Reserve isn&#8217;t a &#8220;drag on the economy.&#8221; It&#8217;s an innovative, forward-thinking move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The idea of an SBR isn&#8217;t stupid. What&#8217;s stupid is dismissing it with outdated arguments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This article is a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/takes\/bitcoin-magazine-introduces-opinion-takes\"><em>Take<\/em><\/a><em>. Opinions expressed are entirely the author&#8217;s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steve Hanke is wrong about something Bitcoin related once again. He\u2019s&nbsp;recently taken aim at the idea of the U.S. creating a&nbsp;Strategic Bitcoin Reserve&nbsp;(SBR). In the video embedded in the X post below, Hanke claimed that converting government savings into bitcoin would be a &#8220;drag on the economy&#8221; because those savings wouldn&#8217;t be invested in &#8220;real [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2513,"featured_media":40429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[248,4286,397],"class_list":["post-40427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-takes","tag-bitcoin-reserve","tag-strategic-bitcoin-reserve","tag-usa"],"author_data":{"id":2513,"name":"Vivek Sen","nicename":"vivek-sen-bitcoin","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cropped-vivek-96x96.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/leonardo_lightning_xl_a_bitcoin_next_to_the_american_flag_1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}