According to a recent report by Bloomberg, hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, who was recently nominated to be the new Treasury secretary, will divest his Bitcoin ETF holdings.
The billionaire American investor owns no more than $500,000 worth of shares of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT).
Overall, Bessent has listed more than $500 billion worth of assets.
If confirmed by the Senate, the investor will part ways with Connecticut-based hedge fund Key Square Group, which he co-founded back in 2015.
Alex DovbnyaThe incoming Treasury secretary has millions of dollars in SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), and Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP), according to his personal financial disclosure.
He also has minor exposure to iShares Gold Trust (IAU), iShares Silver Trust (SLV), and SPDR Gold Shares (GLD).
On top of that, he has disclosed a mansion in the Bahamas that is worth up to $25 million.
A crypto-friendly pick
Bessent, who will replace current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, is viewed as a cryptocurrency-friendly pick.
During a July interview with Fox Business, Bessent said that crypto was about freedom, adding that the industry was here to stay. He also criticized the idea of punishing the entire cryptocurrency space for the actions of some bad actors.
According to Polymarket, a popular cryptocurrency-based prediction market, Bessent has a 95% chance of being confirmed.
Yellen previously expressed rather cautious views on crypto. Back in 2021, she claimed that Bitcoin was "extremely inefficient" for conducting transactions. Last February, she called for urgent crypto regulation due to some risks associated with the nascent sector.
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