Former Germany Finance Minister Calls Out For Missed Bitcoin Opportunity

[L4rs_]

Christian Lindner blaming his own government for selling Bitcoin before Bullrun before GTA 6 - What a time to be alive.

Honestly, Germany is cooked when it comes to our politicians.

All big politicians are cooked if we look deep enough, aren't they? 

Yes for sure haha I'm actually fan of Lindner and FDP because all other parties are so much worse politics is really disgusting

[Lucius]

And they still not learn from their mistakes, they should have bought Bitcoin right now otherwise they will regret in the next year.
~snip~

I really don't know what kind of mistakes you are talking about in the context of the fact that a German province sold seized BTC in compliance with the law on seized assets. Nor could the German parliament, the president or any third party decide on it.

For those who obviously live in some fantasies that countries that are members of the European Union and the Eurozone can buy BTC without the approval of the European Central Bank, maybe they should familiarize themselves with the monetary policy of the EU before making their statements.

[kryptqnick]

Well, it's always easier to criticize others than recognize one's own mistakes from the past. It's also easy to accuse people of missing an opportunity with Bitcoin, now that Bitcoin's in the bull phase. But I think it's understandable that countries with strong risk-averse mentalities and institutions avoid assets they deem risky. It wasn't obvious that they'd gain $2.5 billion, for example. Bitcoin could easily lose value over time and still be in the bear market.

[d5000]

Perhaps there are further news soon: Frank Schäffler, the FDP politician I mentioned in the last post, seems to have confirmed that the FDP, in their official campaign document, will propose to work towards "openness" for a strategic reserve, both for the German Bundesbank and for the European Central Bank (according to BTC-Echo). Schäffler has also confirmed this at his X account.

The official campaign document has however still not been published fully, so I couldn't confirm that.
Edit: Confirmed! See here. As written above, they indeed propose "openness" for a strategic reserve on national and European levels, in addition to the approval of Bitcoin ETFs.

The FDP is a relatively small party and it's unclear if they will cross the 5% threshold to enter the parliament in the February 2025 election in Germany. However, it's again interesting that Bitcoin-related proposals are entering the political space. I'm not so much a fan of strategic reserves -- I'm actuall neutral on that topic in general, but I'd be energically against attempts of governments/Central banks to try to influence the Bitcoin protocol via this way.

For those who obviously live in some fantasies that countries that are members of the European Union and the Eurozone can buy BTC without the approval of the European Central Bank, maybe they should familiarize themselves with the monetary policy of the EU before making their statements.

While I generally agree with that, as far as I know this restriction is only valid for strategic reserves of the Central banks of the Eurozone countries.

There are however other government entities that could, in theory, invest in Bitcoin in similar ways they invest in stocks of local companies or bonds. For example municipalities or member states of federal countries, just like the US states which are now trying to create strategic Bitcoin reserves. In some cases there are local/regional restrictions to avoid too speculative investments though, which of course would also affect Bitcoin potentially.

There are also other interesting cases, this time not in the EU but from Argentina I know that state companies are mining Bitcoin since a couple of years. It seems they're however not holding but selling the coins to a service provider. But that could, in theory, be also a "backdoor" for a strategic reserve.

[Mia Chloe]

The official campaign document has however still not been published fully, so I couldn't confirm that.
The FDP is a relatively small party and it's unclear if they will cross the 5% threshold to enter the parliament in the February 2025 election in Germany. However, it's again interesting that Bitcoin-related proposals are entering the political space. I'm not so much a fan of strategic reserves -- I'm actuall neutral on that topic in general, but I'd be energically against attempts of governments/Central banks to try to influence the Bitcoin protocol via this way.

At this particular stage of the pump many countries and investors are actually making speculative moves on Hodling bitcoin and it's not quite surprising giving the most recent pump and the current momentum that is continuously increasing. Personally I think most countries didn't take on the opportunity while it was at it's peak with the closest instance as when we experienced massive pull back to around $49k.

At this point bitcoin adoption will increase tremendously especially if more countries continue to make solid moves to buying more coins. The only problem I see is price manipulation would be more of an issue since more big firms and countries will end up holding larger amounts of bitcoin.

[coolcoinz]

I would not say Germany lost any profit on this because this Bitcoin was seized and the government doesn't invest a single money on this.  At the same time, I believe the fund collected was already used somewhere else that will benefit the country.

This is a very strange way of looking at things.

Does that mean that if someone gives you a piece of art and you fail to recognize its value and sell it cheap, you haven't lost any potential profit because you haven't invested any money?
Throwing money away is always a loss, no matter if it's done intentionally, by mistake, out of neglect or lack of knowledge.

Germany caused a price correction by dumping coins. It delayed the bull market. Its decision to sell was like a double negative because it deprived the country of potential profit and created some market fear and turmoil that we really did not need at that time.

[Taskford]

Christian Lindner the former finance minister of Germany made a speech yesterday in Bundestag where he mentioned that the Government have missed out on all the economic opportunities Bitcoin offers. His statement made users on X to bounce on his opinion with lots of questions why he didn't give Bitcoin a shot during his tenure 3 years ago.

Politicians don't seize to amuse me with the switch of statements when a new financial development arises about bitcoin. Is he making fun of himself by slamming Olaf Scholz the Chancellor of Germany, when he did nothing about investing in Bitcoin? Also he made no clarifications about his negligence on btc while on sit as the minister of finance.

Politicians are begining to use btc for campaigns because of the funds top BTC firms send out to help them win election, even when they didn't show regard to btc when in power and during the grass root days.

On the other hand, Germany indeed lost over $2.5billion in profit when they sold 50,000 bitcoins seized by the public prosecutor's office in Saxony when the price was at 53k. An X user mentioned the community need no politicians interested in BTC.

What do you think?

https://cryptorank.io/news/feed/e67c8-germany-ex-finance-minister-criticizes-government-for-overlooking-bitcoin

If they are not so greedy to sell every Bitcoins they have before then provably that they could earn a lot more profit now compare before.

What reaction they made is common action for people who regret that they sell and counting possible huge profit they could get if they just choose to hodl these days.  But guess for us normal investor its so good that that they made that decision before where there's no good movement happening with Bitcoin. Since if they do there massive sell off when Bitcoin reached at $100k then provably that it will just bother the current good movement which is currently happening with this coin.


So let them regret what they are missing on that's why always put trust on Bitcoin and it will give good profit to those people who decide to hold for more years.

[Ever-young]

If they are not so greedy to sell every Bitcoins they have before then provably that they could earn a lot more profit now compare before.

I don't consider their selling decision as an action of greed; it's a decision that they took in respect to their seizure laws. That's not a coin they accumulate with a budget; it was something that just happened, and when the need for it to be freed came out, they had to. 
 
And if they want to make a profit or benefit from Bitcoin, there is still time for them to do that; all they should do is start now and make plans for that and not just the regular speech by a politician who wants to seek another opportunity to office and thinks talking in favour of Bitcoin can give them a smooth ride to achieving their goal.