Asset manager and investor Anthony Pompliano recently stated that the global Bitcoin ( BTC ) arms race between sovereign nations and governments has already started.

In an appearance on Yahoo Finance, Pompliano argued that market participants believe President-elect Trump will keep his campaign promises and establish a Bitcoin strategic reserve, and that doing so would be in the best interest of the United States to prevent being "Front-run by other countries." Pompliano asserted:

"There is a global race for Bitcoin going on right now. Whether you are a local, state, or federal government official, you should be figuring out how to get as much Bitcoin onto the balance sheet as possible. This is not like gold where we can just go dig up more of it out of the ground."

The pro-Bitcoin asset manager explained that the race to adopt Bitcoin is primarily driven by currency devaluation and noted that US residents lost approximately 25% of their purchasing power over the last five years.

'There is a global race underway for Bitcoin' — Anthony Pompliano image 0

US dollar purchasing power since 2020. Source: Jeffrey A. Tucker

Related: ‘The Case for Bitcoin as a Reserve Asset’ — Bitcoin Policy Institute

The race is on domestically and internationally

During the interview, Pompliano noted that Bhutan and El Salvador are accumulating Bitcoin and have the advantage of being smaller players that lack the same downside risks as global powers like the United States. However, despite the added risk of being a global economic hegemon, the downside risk to the United States investing in Bitcoin remains relatively low. Pompliano argued:

"The national debt increased by 850 billion dollars in the last 90 days. If we were to try to put that same 850 billion dollars into Bitcoin, that is about half of the current market cap. So, we're talking about 50-100 billion dollars — small rounding errors when it comes to government spending. And I think that it is well worth the risk-reward."

The same pattern of adopting Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset is also playing out domestically. Jimmy Patronis, Florida's chief financial officer, is pushing for the state pension fund to allocate some of its portfolio to Bitcoin .

More recently, in November 2024, Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced a Bitcoin strategic reserve bill . If passed, the bill would allow the Pennsylvania State Treasury to maintain 10% of its assets in the supply-capped digital currency.

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