It's hard to ignore the records being set by the price of Bitcoin this past week. It seems like every time I check, it's a new all-time high. Prognosticators galore: everyone is calling for $100k BTC by the end of 2024. And why not? With all the attention it's getting from President-elect Trump, it seems to be a new frontier for cryptocurrencies.

Did you know that Ethereum has just surpassed Bank of America, in terms of market capitalization?

All that is good for Ethereum. It's certainly a signal of a possible seismic shift, when the total value of a cryptocurrency is exceeding the total value of one of America's biggest financial institutions. What we're watching here is the legacy fiat system being dethroned by the rise of cryptocurrencies.

It comes amidst the incoming President of the United States calling for a "strategic Bitcoin reserve." So, what exactly would that look like and would it make sense? Well, if we are to believe that the US Dollar truly is doomed, then yes -- the United States hodling Bitcoin certainly would make sense. I am curious, though, as to how that will be handled. Trump has historically been in favor of a strong US Dollar, how would this shift take place?

Let's not forget though: the United States government already owns over 69,000 Bitcoins -- according to a Forbes article from 2023. A bulk of these were acquired via a 2020 seizure by the Department of Justice from a wallet linked to the Silk Road, a dark web criminal market place that the FBI shut down in 2013. It seems that there is a need for more clarity on regulation before anything is done with these seize Bitcoins. While the US government has sold off some of their holdings, they are still in possession of said 69k Bitcoins.

So, enter the BITCOIN Act of 2024 - introduced July 31, 2024. The bill would need to gain bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House before it can reach the President to be signed to become law. 

To establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and other programs to ensure the transparent management of Bitcoin holdings of the Federal Government, to offset costs utilizing certain resources of the Federal Reserve System, and for other purposes.

A combination of a pro-crypto President and the legislation proposed this past July makes for the price action we're currently seeing in Bitcoin. Could BTC ironically solve the United States never-ending budget deficit? Wouldn't that be an interesting twist, to see a decentralized peer-to-peer electronic money system save the legacy fiat system. At that point, it would only seem natural that other countries would begin to follow suit.

So, does Bitcoin ultimately replace the US Dollar as the world reserve currency? We'll just have to wait and see. What's clear is that financial history is happening right before our eyes.

By the way, since El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender in 2021, it has been touted as both a success and a failure. While the adoption rate is still rather low, it has greatly increased tourism to the South American country. Bukele's purchases of Bitcoin in 2021-2022, considered then to be cataclysmic failures, are looking pretty good now:

I would surmise that, if Bitcoin does eventually become a world reserve currency, the price could go much higher than $100k. I think that Hal Finney's prediction of $1 million per coin could actually come to fruition one day.

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