Britain Has a $5 Billion Bitcoin Stash. Reeves Can Unleash It.

Rachel Reeves is going to need some money. The UK’s new Chancellor of the Exchequer has inherited, she says, one of the worst sets of circumstances since World War II. Meeting her goal to “rebuild Britain and make every part of our country better off” won’t be cheap. But there’s a pile of cash conveniently available that won’t involve raising taxes — Britain’s Bitcoin holdings.

With Donald Trump looking increasingly likely to beat Joe Biden in the US presidential election, investors have been racing to buy potentially Trumptastic assets. The list includes smaller US companies that should benefit from a bit of protectionism, European defense companies in anticipation of increased domestic military budgets, US energy companies — and, so far at least, Bitcoin. The Republicans seem keener on cryptocurrencies than Biden (although the sector has still done stormingly well under his tenure). Their platform published earlier this month suggests that crackdowns on coins are “unlawful and un-American.”