Overview
- Marking the Bitcoin white paper’s 17th anniversary, Scott Bessent wrote on X that the network is “more resilient than ever” and “never shuts down,” adding that Senate Democrats “could learn something from that.”
- The message referenced bitcoin’s continuous operation since 2009 and used the Oct. 31 milestone to highlight the network’s always-on design.
- Responses on X split between technical critics and policy advocates, with developer Luke Dashjr calling bitcoin “weaker than ever” and market voices urging Treasury to buy for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve or put holdings on the balance sheet.
- Treasury did not announce any new crypto policy moves, following earlier statements in which Bessent praised stablecoins as a “revolution in digital finance” and floated using forfeited bitcoin to seed a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
- Coverage placed the remark against a partial federal shutdown that began Oct. 1, which has produced roughly 900,000 furloughs, about 2 million employees working without pay, and curtailed operations at agencies including the NIH and CDC.