Wharton School professor Jeremy Siegel believes that the hegemony of the American dollar is threatened not by BRICS, but by Bitcoin .
Siegel was recently asked to comment on US President-elect Donald Trump's decision introduce 100% tariffs on goods produced by BRICS countries if they refuse to use dollars. Jeremy was skeptical about this plan and questioned its effectiveness.
I think the biggest threat to the dollar as a reserve currency is Bitcoin, which Trump is known to support. So it's weird to tell them [BRICS members], "Don't issue an alternative reserve currency." When many countries are talking about Bitcoin in light of the alternative currency. Some of them are dumping gold and buying bitcoins, — said Siegel.
Jeremy Siegel
We were unable to find any information about countries whose governments have converted gold into cryptocurrency, so Jeremy’s words about exchanging precious metal for BTC should be taken with a grain of salt. However, some countries do own digital assets. For example, El Salvador has acquired at least 6175 bitcoins worth $547,3 million at the current exchange rate, and the US government holds about 207 BTC worth $000 billion.
However, in the future Bitcoin could compete with the dollar as a reserve currency if the government starts investing budget funds in cryptocurrency. Similar plans are already being discussed in the US, Brazil, Poland and Russia. The Russian Federation has proposed creating a reserve fund for virtual currencies mined in the country, which includes Bitcoin At the same time, the head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov opposed of this initiative and said that BTC could be given the status of a reserve asset “in about 100 years.”
