Prospective Democratic party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr has made an endorsement of his own during a virtual conference in which he detailed plans to back the US dollar with bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
RFK Jr, the nephew of former US president John F. Kennedy, said he would start “very, very small” by backing “perhaps 1% of issued T-bills… by hard currency, by gold, silver platinum or bitcoin” before increasing the allocation yearly “depending on the outcome”.
"Backing dollars and US debt obligations with hard assets could help restore strength back to the dollar, rein in inflation and usher in a new era of American financial stability, peace and prosperity," he declared.
His monetary policies partially seek to restore the gold standard that was terminated by the Nixon administration in 1971.
He also suggested making bitcoin exempt from capital gains taxes.
RFK Jr. suggested that the incumbent fiat monetary system was “invented to fund wars”.
“I like base currencies because they make it more difficult, you have to go to the public. You can't just print money to fund the war and tax the public through the hidden tax of inflation. You actually have to go to the public and say, ‘Here's what this war is going to cost.’
“My uncle, President Kennedy, when he was in office, understood the importance of hard currency and the dangers of having pure fiat currency with no other option,” said RFK Jr.
“He understood the relationship between fiat currency and war… and very destructive environmental projects and also these giant aggregations of wealth and the unbalance, the disparities in wealth that are the ultimate yield of every fiat currency," he added.
RFK Jr is purported to own up to US$250,000 (£193,000) worth of bitcoin.
RFK Jr. has emerged as a controversial figure in US politics, particularly due to his Covid-19 scepticism.