That’s what cryptocurrency advocates hope. They are cheering President Trump’s plan to nominate Kevin Warsh to the Federal Reserve, noting his supportive comments about bitcoin.
“Soon, Kevin Warsh will be the first pro-Bitcoin Chairman of the Federal Reserve,” Michael Saylor, founder of the largest bitcoin-buying firm, Strategy, wrote on X.
Last year, Warsh praised bitcoin in an interview organized by Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, rejecting the views of skeptics who derided digital currencies as fundamentally worthless or tools for criminal activity.
“Bitcoin doesn’t trouble me. I think of it as an important asset that can help inform policymakers when they’re doing things right and wrong. It is not a substitute to the dollar. I think it can be a good policeman for policy,” Warsh said in the July interview.
He described the blockchain technology that underpins bitcoin as “the newest, coolest software,” calling it a neutral tool that could be used for both good and evil.
Warsh was an investor in a crypto venture called Basis, which said in 2018 that it was “building a cryptocurrency with an algorithmic central bank.” In December of that year, Basis said it was shutting down, citing regulatory difficulties.
Bitcoin traded at about $83,160 on Friday morning, down 1.1% from 4 p.m. ET on Thursday.
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