Recently, it's interesting that the Fort Knox gold bar issue has come back into the spotlight. It all started when Mr. Mask, as head of the Government Efficiency Bureau, questioned whether the stored gold bars actually exist, but this has unexpectedly involved the Bitcoin debate as well.

Last year, Mr. Mask posted on X that "it would be cool to do a live walkthrough of Fort Knox." Subsequently, President Trump also mentioned auditing the "legendary Fort Knox." It's rare for politicians to seriously discuss the transparency of gold reserves.

What’s concerning is the fact that the last public audit of Fort Knox was on September 24, 1974. Since then, over 50 years, no independent third-party audits have been conducted. When Treasury Secretary Mnuchin visited in 2017, it was a private visit without media coverage. With such a lack of transparency, conspiracy theories are only natural.

What’s interesting here is that this issue highlights the advantages of Bitcoin. Unlike gold bars, where you have to "trust" what’s there, Bitcoin records on the blockchain can be verified by anyone. Someone holding $5 million worth of Bitcoin can prove ownership instantly if they have an internet connection. Meanwhile, with Fort Knox’s gold, U.S. citizens are nominal owners, but there’s no way to verify it in practice.

Barnstein, an analyst, points out that if a strategic Bitcoin reserve is established, the government would need to raise funds to purchase Bitcoin, and at that point, they might sell some of the gold reserves. In other words, the transparency issues surrounding gold are not just conspiracy theories—they could influence future policy decisions.

It’s also symbolic that Mr. Mask’s concerns caught the attention of President Trump. As the relationship between politics and cryptocurrencies deepens, the limitations of traditional asset management methods are becoming apparent. The issue of verifiability of gold reserves will increasingly be contrasted with highly transparent assets like Bitcoin.