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First ever crypto-friendly US Treasury Secretary nominated by Trump

Bessent

The future team of the US president-elect Donald Trump received another Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto-friendly nomination, with hedge fund manager Scott Bessent potentially becoming the first-ever US Treasury Secretary to openly support the cryptoasset industry.

Trump has officially nominated Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury on Friday. The candidate still needs to be confirmed by the Senate.

Bessent is the founder and CEO of the investment firm Key Square Group, which saw its assets under management fall from over USD 5 billion at the end of 2017 to less than USD 600 million a year ago, per Convergence Inc. data.

Key Square Group Results:

Source: Convergence Inc.
Source: Convergence Inc.

The president-elect claims that the yet-to-be-confirmed Treasury Secretary will help him fortify the US position as the world's leading economy, center of innovation and entrepreneurialism, and destination for capital, while also helping to "curb the unsustainable path of Federal Debt."

In either case, the cryptoasset industry hopes that Bessent might also bring a more favorable environment for this nascent industry.

In an interview with Fox in July, Bessent said that he had been excited about Trump's embrace of crypto as this "fits very well with the Republican Party."

"Crypto is about freedom, and the crypto economy is here to stay,"

the now potential new Treasury Secretary said back then.

According to him, "everything is on the table with Bitcoin," and this new asset class is bringing new opportunities for investors.

"I think he would do the best as Treasury Sec, even leaving aside the Bitcoin stuff. He inherits a tough job,"

a prominent Bitcoiner and venture capitalist, Nic Carter, reacted after the nomination was announced.

Meanwhile, another Bitcoiner, Max Keiser, noted that

"The only job the Treasury Secretary has is to get out of the way of Bitcoin."

In either case, another high-profile investor, billionaire Howard Lutnick, the CEO of investment giant Cantor Fitzgerald, was also among the candidates for the head of the Treasury. He’s considered to be even more friendly to the Bitcoin and crypto industry. The billionaire was also a preferred candidate of Trump's supporter, Tesla's boss Elon Musk. Musk openly opposed the idea of Bessent becoming the Treasury Secretary, claiming that this is "a business-as-usual choice." However, Lutnick was nominated to become the next Commerce Secretary earlier this week.

At the time of writing, BTC trades at around USD 98,662, up 47% in a month and 164% in a year.

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