French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Sarah Knafo delivered a high-profile tackle, urging the European Union (EU) to undertake a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” as a part of a broader effort to advertise monetary autonomy and fight inflationary pressures.
A French Justice of the Peace and member of the Cour des Comptes, Knafo’s background consists of public service and political advising, most notably for right-wing Jewish presidential candidate Éric Zemmour. Knafo’s public function has steadily risen since her election to the European Parliament in 2024.
Why The EU Wants A Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
In her speech on the Parliament ground, Knafo drew upon world examples—citing El Salvador’s early adoption of Bitcoin and political figures comparable to former US President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell—to underscore a rising wave of institutional acceptance. She asserted that the EU’s present monetary methods put member states at an obstacle inside what she characterised as a quickly evolving financial panorama.
“Already 3 years ago, on the other side of the Atlantic, the president of El Salvador decided to invest for his country in crypto-currencies,” stated Knafo, referencing El Salvador’s 2021 authorized tender regulation. “At the time, he was reviled by the political class and the IMF. Today, he’s up 100%.”
Emphasizing a perceived missed alternative for EU nations, Knafo argued that El Salvador’s transfer has yielded important capital positive factors—assets that, she stated, the nation has used to bolster each “the security and sovereignty of his country.” Turning to the USA, she acknowledged that “Donald Trump will establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve for the United States.”.
Knafo additionally invoked the general public stance of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, stating that “Jerome Powell […] is now talking about it as ‘digital gold.’” She positioned these developments as indicators that different main economies are adapting to decentralized finance, whereas “the European Union […] continues to accumulate tragically inflationary deficits,” with current regulatory measures that she criticized as overly restrictive.
“We don’t want this dystopian world,” Knafo warned, referencing the European Central Financial institution’s work on a digital euro. “Where tomorrow a European bureaucrat will be able to prohibit us from certain transactions and even eliminate us from the banking system at the click of a button for something we say on social networks.”
All through her tackle, Knafo appealed for a wholesale shift in EU monetary coverage: “It’s time to say no to the totalitarian temptations of the European Central Bank, which wants to impose a digital euro entirely in its own hands […] It’s time to bet on freedom.”
She went on to advocate for a flourishing Bitcoin mining sector within the EU, suggesting that France’s nuclear vitality infrastructure may provide a aggressive edge. “We, the French, hold the cards with our nuclear trump card,” she stated, framing home energy era as an untapped enabler of large-scale mining operations.
Knafo additionally addressed the necessity to alter present taxation insurance policies, urging lawmakers to “stop taxing cryptocurrency holders” and stressing that crypto-asset holders took private dangers to generate their wealth. She characterised current authorities deficits as straight fueling inflation and financial instability: “Government deficits that drive money creation […] create inflation, that lead to chaos […] Let them protect themselves from the insane spiral you’ve created.”
At press time, Bitcoin traded at $106,947.
Featured picture created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com