Jared Kushner Contemplated the Prospect of Releasing Federal Crypto

In an email sent to the then U.S.- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in 2018, former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner showed interest in the possibility of releasing a federal cryptocurrency. 

According to the Freedom of Information Act request by CoinDesk, Kushner was studying the possibility of having a group of experts “brainstorm” to the right governmental parties the possibility of developing a decentralized federal currency. 

“Would you be open to me bringing a small group of people to have a brainstorm about this topic?” the former senior advisor said in his email. 

“My sense is it could make sense and also be something that could ultimately change the way we payout entitlements as well saving us a ton in waste fraud and also in transaction costs […],” he further added. 

The email also included a link to a blog titled “U.S. Digital Currency” going back to 2018, written by a former president of Y Combinator startup incubator and Open AI’s current CEO. 

The blog post addresses the prospect that the U.S. should dispatch its own cryptocurrency and make it the country’s official ledger, similar to when China released its own digital yuan. It further adds that it should be named U.S. Digital Currency (USDC), adding that it would not be developed by the American government. 

The post emphasized that the U.S. digital currency should have any taxes associated or built-in, highlighting that its development will play a fundamental role in providing the U.S. with “some power over a worldwide currency.” 

On the side, the son-in-law expressed that this would be one way of diminishing “waste, fraud, and transaction costs when paying out entitlements. The result of the suggestion is still vague, given that the emails shared with Munchin do not reveal if he ever responded to Kushner’s proposal or whether there was ever a meeting conducted between both parties. 

Despite Kushner’s proposal, the American government has been directing its attention towards decentralized currencies during the same time Kushner shared the email with the former Treasury Secretary. 

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the treasury of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FCEN) have constantly been examining the ever-active cryptocurrency space, in addition to aiming to reach legislative actions on cryptocurrency data collection and regulations. 

Despite the U.S. investing its efforts to monitor cryptocurrency to comprehend its ecosystem fully, other countries have already adopted cryptocurrency or decentralized currencies. 

El Salvador, for instance, revealed last year that it would be officially accepting Bitcoin as an official currency, alongside U.S. Dollar. China also took its turn in considering digital currencies, despite not being created on Blockchain technology.