Can the Government 'Bail Out' Bitcoin? Congressman Prompts Bizarre Exchange With Treasury Secretary

In brief

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the government cannot force banks to buy Bitcoin, during testimony on Capitol Hill.
• He defended the policy of holding seized Bitcoin, but didn’t say whether taxpayer money could ever be used to buy crypto.
• Bessent later got into a shouting match with Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) over the Trump family’s crypto business.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent entered a convoluted tussle on Capitol Hill Wednesday about the nature of Bitcoin, after fielding a question from a congressman about the token’s potential role in a future financial crisis. “Does the Treasury Department… have the authority to bail out Bitcoin?” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) asked Bessent today, during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee. The Treasury Secretary paused for a moment before asking Sherman to elaborate. “What exactly does ‘bail out Bitcoin’ mean?” Bessent replied.

 While many public firms have invested heavily in the cryptocurrency over the last year—and such strategies have increasingly come under scrutiny amid Bitcoin’s recent downturn— the Bitcoin network itself is not at risk of destabilizing should the token’s price slip further. In its early years, Bitcoin functioned without a hitch as its value hovered around a few cents. Sherman then pivoted by asking Bessent if he could ever order U.S. banks to buy Bitcoin. “I do not have the authority to do that,” Bessent answered.

After several more starts and stops, Sherman eventually asked if U.S. taxpayer dollars would ever be invested in crypto assets under the Treasury Secretary’s watch.  But Bessent countered with a defense of the U.S. government’s current policy of stockpiling seized Bitcoin. He did not give an answer about spending taxpayer money to buy additional Bitcoin, before Sherman’s time for questions expired. A few minutes later, the Treasury Secretary entered another crypto-related tussle with a Democratic congressman. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) pressed Bessent on whether he would instruct the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to withhold a bank charter from the Trump family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial, until an investigation is conducted into the firm’s reported partial acquisition by a UAE entity with ties to a lucrative and controversial AI chip deal recently brokered by the White House. Bessent declined to discuss the deal, replying only that the OCC is independent. He then launched into accusations about a trip Meeks reportedly took to Venezuela in 2006. Meeks and Bessent shouted at each other for several seconds after that, before the argument was eventually broken up by committee chair French Hill (R-AR). “Stop covering for the president!” Meeks yelled. “Don’t be a flunky, work for the American people!”