U.S. Treasury Names Bitcoin ‘Digital Gold’ After Price Explosion

Bitcoin has seen its price climb back over $100,000 this week after bouncing wildly around the closely-watched level, with the chief executive of Wall Street’s biggest market maker admitting he’s got “FOMO.”

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The bitcoin price has more than doubled this year as a perfect storm hits the crypto market—with traders now braced for a game-changer this week.

Now, as Tesla billionaire Elon Musk’s campaign against the spiraling $36 trillion debt pile spurs calls for a U.S. bitcoin strategic reserve, the U.S. Treasury has named bitcoin “digital gold” in a report.

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ForbesTesla CEO Elon Musk’s Stark U.S. ‘Bankruptcy’ Warning Sparks Call For Radical FixBy Billy Bambrough

The “primary use case for bitcoin seems to be a store of value aka ‘digital gold’ in a decentralized finance (DeFi) world; speculative interest seems to have played a prominent role in the growth of digital tokens thus far,” the report authors wrote.

Last month, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump nominated Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager known for his pro-bitcoin and crypto stance, to be the next secretary of the Treasury.

In July, Trump promised to create a “strategic national bitcoin reserve” and predicted bitcoin could eclipse gold’s $16 trillion market capitalization during an appearance at the Bitcoin 2024 conference.

“I think that everything is on the table with bitcoin,” Bessent said following Trump’s bitcoin reserve proposal.

Earlier this week, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said bitcoin was comparable to gold during the New York Times’ DealBook conference.

“It’s just like gold only it’s virtual,” Powell said. “People are not using it as a form of payment, or as a store of value. It’s highly volatile. It’s not a competitor for the dollar, it’s really a competitor for gold.”

Bitcoin has seen its price rocket as its embraced as digital gold by the likes of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and bitcoin-buying juggernaut MicroStrategy.

“The U.S. Treasury just declared that bitcoin is digital gold and yet some people still think $100,000 bitcoin is too expensive,” Dennis Porter, whose Satoshi Action Fund has helped draft a number of state-level bitcoin and crypto rights bills, posted to X. “We are going much higher,” Porter added, referring the bitcoin price.

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ForbesBitcoin Now Poised For A $26 Trillion MicroStrategy Game-Changer As Crypto Prices SoarBy Billy Bambrough

The bitcoin price surge in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential election victory as traders bet the incoming administration will mean more Wall Street institutions and investors will buy bitcoin.

“Bitcoin crossing $100,000 is an incredibly important milestone from a psychological perspective as people are programmed to think in 10s,” Peter Chung, head of research at Presto Research, said in emailed comments.

“With bitcoin hitting $100,000, expect to see a lot of general interest pick up from individuals and broader media attention as well,” Chung added.