Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing mounting criticism over reports that the Treasury is considering a swift sale of the UK’s seized Bitcoin holdings—potentially worth over £5 billion at current valuations—in a bid to plug a £20 billion fiscal gap.
The 61,000 Bitcoin, confiscated as part of a 2018 fraud case, could deliver a short-term windfall for the Exchequer. But financial experts are warning that a hasty sale could become another chapter in the government’s long history of poorly timed asset disposals.
Nigel Green, chief executive of global financial advisory group deVere, has likened the move to Gordon Brown’s infamous gold sell-off in the late 1990s—when the UK offloaded bullion at historically low prices, only to see the value surge in the years that followed.
“Turning these assets into instant cash is tempting, but it risks repeating historical errors,” Green said. “They sold gold in a dip, only to regret it years later. We risk replaying that error with Bitcoin.”
Bitcoin recently surged past $118,000—just shy of its all-time high—and its rising profile among institutional investors has bolstered arguments that the digital asset should be treated less as a speculative play and more as a long-term strategic reserve.
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
