US presidential candidate supports Bitcoin, criticizes CBDCs
US presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy Jr. has endorsed Bitcoin (BTC) while speaking out against central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in a Twitter thread on May 5.
According to Kennedy, currency digitization has already given the government unprecedented powers to monitor and control economic life. He believes CBDCs will further “magnify the government’s power to stifle dissent by cutting off access to funds at the touch of a button.”
The presidential candidate’s rhetoric against CBDCs is not surprising, considering he once described them as a tool of “financial slavery and political tyranny.”
Meanwhile, Kennedy so Bitcoin allows people to conduct transactions without government interference. He further described the flagship’s digital asset as a “lifesaver for people’s movements around the world.”
Governments censor their political enemies financially
Without CBDCs, Kennedy highlighted how governments have censored their political enemies financially. He said this tends to play out under authoritarian regimes, but Western countries such as Canada have also adopted this approach.
Kennedy cited examples of how the Canadian government froze the bank accounts of over 200 individuals due to their protests against the vaccine mandate.
According to Kennedy, this incident showed that the United States could one day freeze a person’s bank account because of their political views and comments on social media.
“After all, in 2010 Paypal, Visa and Mastercard suspended WikiLeaks, at the behest of the US State Department,” he added.
Rising anti-CBDC stand
Meanwhile, a growing list of US politicians have taken a stand against the CBDC, citing the risk of financial censorship.
Several US states like Florida, north dakota, and North Carolina has introduced legislation to ban the national digital currency. Senator Ted Cruz too introduced a bill to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing this currency.
While several members of the crypto community have hailed this ban, some stakeholders have warned that the anti-CBDC movements could harm Bitcoin. The Bitcoin Policy Institute wrote that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s decision to veto a CBDC bill affected BTC.
According to the institute, the bill contained provisions that expanded the definitions and protections for Bitcoin. Apart from that, it also created a legal mechanism that recognizes self-custody and the protocol’s inclusion in traditional lending, insurance and commercial transactions.
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