French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Sarah Knafo delivered a high-profile speech, urging the European Union (EU) to adopt a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” as part of a broader effort to promote financial autonomy and combat inflationary pressures.
A French magistrate and member of the Cour des Comptes, Knafo’s experience includes public service and political advice, most notably for right-wing Jewish presidential candidate Éric Zemmour. Knafo’s public role has steadily increased since his election to the European Parliament in 2024.
Why the EU needs a strategic Bitcoin reserve
In his speech in Parliament, Knafo drew on global examples (citing the early adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador and political figures such as former US President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell) to underscore a growing wave of acceptance. institutional. She stated that the EU’s current financial strategies put Member States at a disadvantage within what she characterized as a rapidly evolving monetary landscape.
“3 years ago, on the other side of the Atlantic, the president of El Salvador decided to invest for his country in cryptocurrencies,” Knafo said, referring to El Salvador’s 2021 legal tender law. “At the time, he was vilified by the political class and the IMF. Today it has risen 100%.”
Emphasizing a perceived missed opportunity for EU nations, Knafo argued that El Salvador’s move has produced significant capital gains, resources that, he said, the country has used to reinforce both “the security and sovereignty of its country.” ”. As for the United States, he acknowledged that “Donald Trump will establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve for the United States.”
Knafo also invoked the public stance of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, stating that “Jerome Powell […] Now it is talked about as ‘digital gold’.” She positioned these developments as signs that other major economies are adapting to decentralized finance, while “the European Union […] “continues to accumulate tragically inflationary deficits,” with existing regulatory measures criticized as too restrictive.
“We don’t want this dystopian world,” Knafo warned, referring to the European Central Bank’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 with the push of a button for something we say on social media.”
Throughout his speech, Knafo appealed for a radical change in the EU’s financial policy: “It is 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 is time to bet on freedom.”
He went on to advocate for a flourishing Bitcoin mining sector in the EU, suggesting that France’s nuclear energy infrastructure could provide a competitive advantage. “We, the French, have our nuclear trump card,” he said, framing domestic power generation as an untapped enabler of large-scale mining operations.
Knafo also addressed the need to adjust current tax policies, urging lawmakers to “stop taxing cryptocurrency holders” and emphasizing that cryptoasset holders took personal risks to build their wealth. She characterized existing government deficits as direct feeders of inflation and economic instability: “Government deficits that drive money creation […] create inflation, which leads to chaos […] Let them protect themselves from the insane spiral you have created.”
At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $106,947.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
