Jacob Langenkamp, a research fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, says Taiwan should revisit the idea of holding Bitcoin as part of its national reserves to hedge against geopolitical shock and the risk of conflict with China.
In a Tuesday report, Langenkamp argued that in the event of a PRC blockade or invasion, conventional reserve assets could become inaccessible: gold could be stranded or seized, and U.S. dollar holdings might face restrictions. He wrote that Bitcoin would likely remain fully accessible and spendable without physical transport, giving Taiwan a form of geopolitical resilience few other assets provide.
The concept of strategic Bitcoin reserves has been gaining attention among nation-states, a trend proponents view as bullish for the cryptocurrency. Taiwan’s central bank explored the idea last year but formally rejected creating a national Bitcoin reserve in December, citing concerns about volatility, liquidity and custody. The bank instead emphasized the U.S. dollar as a safer option for now.
Langenkamp warned that Taiwan is particularly exposed to dollar debasement, since at least 80% of the Central Bank of the Republic of China’s reserves and most of the island’s trade are dollar-denominated. He pointed to mounting U.S. debt, an expanded Federal Reserve balance sheet, the possibility of an AI-driven market downturn, and weaker semiconductor revenues as factors that could accelerate dollar weakness.
He proposed that Bitcoin, alongside gold, could act as a hedge against such debasement and that early adoption could allow the central bank to benefit from potential long-term appreciation. Langenkamp also argued that Bitcoin could provide geopolitical insurance, open new low-friction methods of trade, and enhance Taiwan’s monetary resilience.
While acknowledging that liquidity and volatility concerns are legitimate, he said those risks should diminish as Bitcoin matures and adoption broadens, and that they can be managed with institutional custody solutions and robust risk management.
Although the central bank declined to add Bitcoin to reserves for now, it has agreed to further explore related technologies in a digital asset sandbox, using crypto the government already holds. Taiwanese lawmaker Ko Ju-Chun disclosed last year that the Ministry of Justice possesses 210 Bitcoin seized in criminal investigations, worth roughly $14 million at the time.
Some public listings of country-level Bitcoin holdings place Taiwan among the larger national holders, ranked behind El Salvador and ahead of Finland.
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