Florida lawmakers put in their two-cents worth, rejecting Trump's Bitcoin scheme
Congratulations are in order to Florida lawmakers for not becoming easy marks in President Donald Trump's Bitcoin scheme.
When Trump issued an executive order in March that created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, he called the volatile cryptocurrency 'digital gold' and draped it in a lot of hyperbolic rhetoric that guaranteed short-term gains for existing investors.
'The United States Government currently holds a significant amount of BTC, (bitcoin), but has not implemented a policy to maximize BTC's strategic position as a unique store of value in the global financial system,' the executive order read.
'Just as it is in our country's interest to thoughtfully manage national ownership and control of any other resource, our Nation must harness, not limit, the power of digital assets for our prosperity.'
And like magic, Trump-susceptible legislatures around the country began pushing bills that called for state funds to invest in Bitcoin.
That effort in the Florida House of Representatives was led by Rep. Webster Barnaby, R-Deland, who authored a bill that would allow the state to invest up to 10 percent of the money in the state's retirement trust fund, general fund, and other funds in Bitcoin.
Speaking to the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee last month, Barnaby told members to put aside their fears of cryptocurrency and put their faith in Trump.
'It is a new day. This is a new rising. We are embarking on the golden age of the United States of America,' Barnaby said.
'We are doing something that is consequential, representatives. While we cannot tangibly see, we have to trust … I've done my research and I can tell you wholeheartedly that I believe in the president of the United States.'
(That sound you hear in the back of your head is the faint bleating of a lamb.)
Clearly, the man's not a Trump University graduate.
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As for research, I would start with noting that Trump disbanded the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team while he relentlessly marketed his own $TRUMP memecoin and his sons Don Jr. and Eric got into the Bitcoin mining business.
Looks like 'the golden age' is off to a grifting start.
Lucky for us, the sales pitch to make Florida the first state to jump on the Trump Bitcoin bandwagon and put the state's pension fund at risk gave lawmakers some pause.
'The second one of these blockchain technologies gets hacked, the value of that coin goes to zero pretty quick,' said Rep. Kevin Steele, R-Hudson. 'That would be the only fear I have in investing in something like that.
'I'm a tangible person,' Steele continued. 'A coin I can't touch, feel or see is not tangible. It's 'vaporware,' so to speak.'
State Rep. Mike Caruso, R-West Palm Beach, thought that giving the state's Chief Financial Officer the ability to invest 10 percent of state funds in a cryptocurrency was too risky.
'Do you think it's wise to invest up to 10 percent of our entire portfolio in any one item, whether it's Bitcoin or Tesla stock?' he asked.
State Rep. Adam Anderson, R-Palm Harbor, a wealth manager by trade, said he didn't know why the state should single out just Bitcoin when there are many other forms of cryptocurrency that could be purchased.
He also said that this was an investment option that was still 'in its infancy.' And that should give us pause.
'There are new concerns when we're adding a new asset class,' he told his colleagues. 'One of them, significantly, is the volatility.'
State Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, D-Gainesville, 65, said she learned from her children and grandchildren that 'there's a whole new world out there in this digital stuff.'
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But she worried about giving Florida's Chief Financial Officer, a job that's now vacant, the power to take real money out of state funds to invest in something so hard to imagine.
'My generation don't understand it if it's not money,' she said.
In the end, Florida lawmakers took a pass on succumbing to Trump's Bitcoin push. And the state wasn't alone.
Similar legislative efforts in Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma failed to adopt Bitcoin reserves in those states too.
And in Arizona, the state's Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, vetoed a Bitcoin bill last week that had been passed by the Republican-led legislature there.
'The Arizona State Retirement System is one of the strongest in the nation because it makes sound and informed investments,' Hobbs wrote in her veto letter.
'Arizonans' retirement funds are not the place for the state to try untested investments like virtual currencу.'
And neither is Florida's. At least for now.
So, let's salute our state lawmakers for having enough sense this time to resist being conned by their greedy hero.
Frank Cerabino is a news columnist with The Palm Beach Post, which is part of the USA Today Network-Florida. He can be reached at FCerabino@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump couldn't get Florida its own Bitcoin reserve. Good | Opinion
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