In a post shared on Thursday via X, Lloyd Blankfein, the former Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs, acknowledged a potential competitive dynamic between Bitcoin and the US dollar in the context of global reserve currencies. Blankfein, who previously held skeptical views on digital assets, acknowledged that BTC’s growth may place it in direct competition with America’s longstanding monetary hegemony.
Referencing US President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, Blankfein wrote: “Trump correctly spoke to the importance of defending the dollar’s exclusivity as the world’s reserve currency. Helps US trade, financing our deficit, driving US policy choices on our enemies and frenemies. So why is the new admin so bent on promoting BITC?”
Reactions From The Bitcoin Community
Pierre Rochard, Vice President of Research at publicly listed mining firm Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT), publicly noted via X: “BREAKING: Lloyd Blankfein, former Goldman Sachs CEO, believes that the US dollar and BITCOIN are actually competing against each other to be world’s reserve currency.”
John Haar, who leads Private Client Services at Swan and previously served as a Wall Street portfolio manager and institutional investor for 13 years, offered a counter-perspective to Blankfein via X: “Maybe they aren’t so mutually exclusive? It’s likely that the USD/Treasuries will continue in their role as dominant global reserve currency/asset… even as Bitcoin continues to grow in market cap and adoption. Also related, why does any government hold gold reserves?”
Similarly, Matthew Pines, a National Security Fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, framed BTC’s expansion as aligned with broader US strategic interests: “Bitcoin aligns directly with US geoeconomic interests to contain China’s digital authoritarianism, buttress the Treasury-Dollar system, and reinforce our values around the world.”
David Marcus, CEO and co-founder of Lightspark and formerly a key figure in Meta’s digital asset initiatives, downplayed the notion that BTC threatens the dollar’s supremacy: “Bitcoin is not a threat to the dollar’s supremacy. It won’t compete as a unit of account for every day payments. It’s a digital version of gold with 100x more utility and will be used as a neutral digital settlement asset between systems & currencies. BTC will make USD stronger.”
Eric Weiss, CEO of Bitcoin Investment Group, echoed Marcus’s sentiment, stating: “Bitcoin will help underpin and proliferate the USD globally. Truly synergistic.”
Blankfein’s current stance fits with his previous position on BTC and cryptocurrencies. In 2021, he publicly questioned Bitcoin’s viability as a store of value and suggested that regulators should be deeply concerned about its rise. At the time, he commented: “I may be skeptical, but I’m also pragmatic about it. And so guess what? I would certainly want to have an oar in that water.”
By January 2022, Blankfein’s position had begun to evolve. In an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” he emphasized the growing maturity of the Bitcoin ecosystem, noting: “Look, my view of it is evolving. I can’t predict the future, but I think it’s a big thing to be able to predict the present, like, ‘What is happening?’ And I look at the crypto, and it is happening.” Blankfein clarified that by “happening,” he was referring to the overall market maturation.
At press time, BTC traded at $97,793.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com