Wang Yongli, former vice president of the Bank of China: Look at Trump's new Bitcoin policy rationally and don't blindly follow the trend

Wang Yongli, former vice president of the Bank of China, wrote in the article "Rationally Look at Trump's New Bitcoin Policy" in the 1st issue of "China Foreign Exchange" in 2025, pointing out that Bitcoin highly imitates gold at the "currency" level, and is therefore called "digital gold". However, Bitcoin is a purely chain-born digital asset, not a natural physical asset. Its value depends on the development space of its application scenarios and people's faith and investment. Bitcoin can be divided into small units of one billionth, which is more flexible in payment, but it is not backed by real gold. It is not "paper gold" in the strict sense. Once it loses trust, it will be wiped out and worthless, and the risk is far greater than gold. Moreover, Trump's new Bitcoin policy is difficult to implement. First, it is difficult for the United States to have new Bitcoin. The development of quantum computing technology will also pose major challenges to the security of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Secondly, the so-called national strategic reserve of Bitcoin, whether it is the strategic reserve of the government (finance) or the strategic reserve of the Federal Reserve (central bank) as the US dollar, has risks and uncertainties. Replacing gold reserves with Bitcoin reserves is unlikely to have a practical positive impact on the US dollar, and it is also difficult to use it to repay government debts. Again, Trump's new Bitcoin policy contradicts his position of strengthening the US dollar as a global key currency. Therefore, Bitcoin can only be a new type of tradable wealth or digital asset. It is difficult to become a real currency and cannot replace sovereign currency at all. Whether it can replace gold as a national strategic reserve is still a big question. The international community should treat Trump's new Bitcoin policy calmly and objectively, and should not blindly follow suit.