Bitcoin, after soaring in 2024, has been hovering around $100,000 for the past week as traders brace for the next price shock.
According to Forbes magazine, investors predict that Bitcoin prices will continue to explode in 2025 when billionaire Elon Musk, advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, signals the return to the forefront of cryptocurrencies.
After the US Treasury Department called Bitcoin “digital gold,” Russian lawmakers are reportedly pushing for the country to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma (Lower House of Parliament) Anton Tkachev has proposed creating a Russian strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Mr. Tkachev reportedly sent the proposal to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov to “assess the feasibility of creating a strategic reserve fund in Bitcoin in Russia” and compare it with “state reserves in traditional currencies.”
"If this initiative is approved, I ask the Minister to submit it to the Government of the Russian Federation for further implementation," the proposal reads.
With countries under sanctions having limited access to traditional international payment systems, cryptocurrencies are becoming the only tool for international trade. The Central Bank of Russia is preparing to launch a pilot program for cross-border payments using cryptocurrencies.
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Bitcoin as an alternative to foreign currency reserves after Western governments froze some $300 billion in Russian assets to punish the country for its military campaign in Ukraine.
"A legitimate question: Why accumulate reserves if they can be lost so easily?" - Reuters quoted President Putin as saying at the "Russia Calling" investment conference in Moscow on December 4.
Mr. Putin also called Bitcoin a potential solution. "Who can ban Bitcoin? No one. Because they are new technologies. And no matter what happens to the US dollar, instruments like Bitcoin will develop one way or another," the Russian leader pointed out.
Meanwhile, Russia has taken steps to allow the use of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for transactions in the face of financial sanctions. President Putin also signed a new law legalizing the use of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in the country.
Back in July, at the Bitcoin 2024 conference, then-Republican candidate Donald Trump promised to create a “strategic national Bitcoin reserve” and predicted that Bitcoin could surpass gold’s $16 trillion market capitalization.
Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis has introduced a bill to Congress, called the Promoting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness Through Optimized National Investment (BITCOIN) Act, which proposes the US buy 1 million Bitcoins over five years to reduce the soaring national debt of $35 trillion.
In Vietnam, representatives of the State Bank have repeatedly sent out the message: Bitcoin and other similar virtual currencies are not legal currencies and payment methods in Vietnam. The issuance, supply, and use of Bitcoin and other similar cryptocurrencies as payment methods are acts that are not in accordance with current laws.
