Is the U.S. Using Crypto to Erase $37 Trillion in Debt?

Global debt has surpassed $315 trillion, and confidence in fiat systems is deteriorating. As nations experiment with digital currencies and alternative trade systems, a quiet struggle is underway to redefine what money means and who controls it.

This is not speculation. It is the next evolution of financial engineering, one that will quietly reshape global power without a single shot being fired.

The world is quietly approaching a financial event that could rival the end of the gold standard in 1971. This time, the battlefield is not in the vaults of Fort Knox or the halls of Bretton Woods, but inside blockchain networks, data centers, and the digital wallets of billions of people.

At the recent Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Anton Kobyakov, senior adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused the United States of preparing to drive its $37 trillion debt into crypto, devalue it, and start again from zero. The allegation, which drew attention across Asia, implies that Washington may soon use stablecoins, digital currencies pegged to the U.S. dollar, to silently restructure its debt through technology instead of default.

The claim may sound far-fetched, yet beneath the rhetoric lies a thread of financial logic that even Western economists acknowledge. It points to a deeper truth: in an age of digital money, the ability to reprice debt and control liquidity is more powerful than any weapon. And if this power migrates from paper to code, the world may be on the edge of a new kind of monetary reset.

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To understand why this accusation matters, it helps to recall how debt is devalued without ever being defaulted on. When a nation prints more of its currency, every dollar in circulation loses purchasing power. Governments call it stimulus. Economists call it liquidity. In truth, it is the oldest sleight of hand in history.

After the Second World War, the United States financed its recovery and global dominance through controlled inflation, allowing old debts to shrink relative to new money. The same pattern reappeared in the 1970s when President Richard Nixon severed the dollar’s link to gold, freeing Washington to issue unlimited currency. Again in 2008 and 2020, the pattern repeated. Each time, the pain of devaluation was spread globally, shared by everyone who held U.S. dollars or assets denominated in them.

Inflation is not a policy mistake, it is a tool of empire. By eroding the real value of debt, the United States has repeatedly managed to reset its financial obligations without defaulting. What Kobyakov described at the Eastern Economic Forum is not a new trick but an evolution of the same method into the digital age.

Stablecoins, digital tokens backed one-to-one by dollars or short-term U.S. Treasuries, have become the backbone of global cryptocurrency markets. Their combined circulation now exceeds $160 billion as of October 2025, according to CoinMarketCap data. The two largest issuers, Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC), claim to hold their reserves primarily in American government debt.

This means that each time a trader in Singapore, São Paulo, or Sydney uses a stablecoin, they are indirectly funding the U.S. Treasury. Stablecoins transform America’s national debt into a global, digital product that anyone can hold, whether or not they live under U.S. law.

From a geopolitical standpoint, this innovation allows the United States to export its liabilities worldwide while maintaining control of the underlying system. If inflation rises or the dollar weakens, the loss is no longer confined to Americans. It is distributed across anyone who holds digital dollars on a phone or an exchange.

In this sense, the crypto ecosystem has already achieved what Kobyakov accused Washington of planning, turning sovereign debt into a digital instrument that can be inflated and repriced silently, without public consent.

For the United States, tokenizing its debt is more than an efficiency upgrade. It is a form of leverage. Digital treasuries could enable real-time yield adjustments, instant liquidity control, and programmable maturity dates. As debt becomes fully digitized, Washington would no longer need to default or inflate in the traditional sense. It could reprice, restructure, or roll over its obligations through code. The result is a transfer of power from fiscal policy to algorithmic governance.

The idea of driving U.S. debt into the crypto cloud can be viewed in three stages:

• • • Digitization: A growing share of the U.S. Treasury market becomes tokenized, stored, and traded on blockchain networks. Major banks, including JPMorgan and Citigroup, have already launched pilot programs for tokenized treasuries.
    • Distribution: Regulated stablecoin issuers integrate U.S. debt instruments into global commerce. People and institutions around the world begin using dollar-backed tokens for payments, savings, and trade. Each digital token represents a fractional claim on U.S. debt.
    • Devaluation: Inflation or monetary policy changes gradually erode the real value of those digital tokens. Losses spread globally as stablecoin holders, not just Treasury investors, bear the dilution. The U.S. balance sheet effectively resets while the world shares the cost.

If that sounds complex, it is designed that way. Complexity hides the mechanism, and concealment is the defining feature of every monetary reset.

This digital strategy mirrors earlier American maneuvers. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt confiscated citizens’ gold holdings to revalue the dollar against gold, slashing the real burden of federal debt overnight. In 1971, Nixon’s closure of the gold window dissolved the final constraint on U.S. money creation, exporting inflation to trading partners.

Each episode ended the same way: America preserved its financial dominance by rewriting the rules. The difference today is that the rewriting occurs not through presidential decrees but through lines of computer code.

Blockchain allows the United States to recreate a global dollar network that is faster, cheaper, and less transparent than any previous system. Once enough of the world’s commerce moves through this infrastructure, the U.S. can alter the value of its obligations digitally, just as it once did through devaluation and policy shifts.

The Russian accusation strikes at a real divide now forming across the West. The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, and Australia are all pursuing parallel but conflicting paths toward digital money.

The U.S. Congress passed the Genius Act earlier this year, granting only approved institutions the right to issue dollar-backed stablecoins under Treasury oversight. The Bank of England continues research into a digital pound, though it faces domestic resistance over surveillance concerns. The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched pilot tests of the digital euro, aiming for controlled retail trials in 2026. The Bank of Canada is preparing its own central bank digital currency (CBDC), citing the need to remain competitive in a programmable financial world. Australia’s Reserve Bank completed a pilot in August, testing programmable settlements between banks using tokenized deposits.

Each of these systems shares one trait. They tether citizens’ economic lives more tightly to centralized digital infrastructure. Once currency becomes programmable, debt and savings can be restructured in real time. The same tools that allow efficiency also allow manipulation. That is precisely what Russia and China fear, and what America may be counting on.

Trust is the true currency of civilization. When nations no longer believe in another’s money, they seek anchors in tangible value. The surge in central-bank gold purchases, which reached over 900 tonnes in 2024, signals that countries are quietly hedging against the next monetary break.

In Asia and the Middle East, a different financial map is emerging. Trade settlements between Russia, China, India, and Iran are increasingly denominated in local currencies or gold. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which includes these nations, is developing payment systems independent of the Western SWIFT network.

The implication is clear. While the West builds a digital hierarchy around debt, the East is constructing a physical reserve system anchored in metals, energy, and production. The result will not be a single global currency but a divided monetary world, one based on tangible collateral, the other on digital faith.

Kobyakov’s warning that America will solve its financial problems at the expense of the world reflects a growing perception among non-Western nations. They view the rise of stablecoins and digital dollars as a subtle form of recolonization, a way to bind emerging economies to America’s liabilities while eroding their monetary sovereignty.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently cautioned that privately issued stablecoins could undermine monetary autonomy in developing nations. Yet the same IMF has promoted digital infrastructure projects that depend on U.S.-based technology providers. The contradiction is not lost on policymakers abroad.

In response, Russia and China are accelerating their cross-border settlement platforms, linking the digital ruble and the e-yuan for trade. The People’s Bank of China reported in July that its digital yuan (e-CNY) has processed over 250 billion dollars in transactions since launch. This growing competition reveals a truth few want to admit. The currency war has already begun, and it is being fought in cyberspace, not in central banks.

While Washington denies any plan to move its debt into crypto, private corporations are already doing the work that governments cannot do publicly. MicroStrategy, led by Michael Saylor, has accumulated more than 200,000 bitcoins as of September 2025. The company has effectively become a proxy for a national reserve, trading like a digital sovereign bond.

Saylor has openly stated that Bitcoin represents the digital capital network of the future. He even suggested that the United States could sell its gold reserves and replace them with Bitcoin to dominate both the capital and currency layers of global finance.

Although no such move has been announced by Washington, the precedent of using private entities to perform strategic functions is well established. During the Cold War, the Pentagon relied on corporate contractors to pioneer aerospace technology. Today, it relies on private blockchain firms to experiment with tokenized finance. Once these systems mature, government adoption can occur quietly through acquisition, regulation, or partnership. This gradual absorption creates plausible deniability while achieving the same end, a digitized financial structure that serves national objectives.

If the digital debt reset unfolds as described, the sequence would likely look like this:

• • • Financial strain: Rising debt service costs, combined with political gridlock, push Washington to seek unconventional relief.
    • Technological solution: Treasury-approved stablecoin networks expand, offering efficiency and liquidity access.
    • Inflationary relief: The Federal Reserve subtly increases the money supply, allowing debt to be repaid in weaker dollars.
    • Global distribution: The dilution spreads internationally as dollar-backed digital assets lose purchasing power.
    • Narrative shift: Policymakers present the transition as modernization rather than default.

The world wakes up one morning to find the same numbers on their screens, but the value beneath them has quietly changed. It will not look like a collapse. It will look like progress.

For America’s allies, the implications are profound. If the United States devalues through digital assets, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Australia will face a dilemma.

To preserve dollar parity, they must follow Washington’s lead into tokenized finance. But doing so risks importing America’s inflation and surrendering control of their domestic monetary systems. Refusing, however, would isolate their economies from the Western financial core.

Canada, already burdened by record household debt and exposure to U.S. markets, would see its currency pressured. The United Kingdom and European Union, still dependent on dollar liquidity for trade and defence, would struggle to maintain independence. Australia, heavily linked to both U.S. finance and Asian commodity markets, would find itself trapped between two systems.

This is the new trap in the global economy. If countries follow the digital dollar, they give up control of their own money. If they refuse, they risk being shut out of the system. The illusion of choice is what keeps the control in place.

To the average investor, stablecoins appear harmless, simply digital dollars with faster settlement. But beneath their convenience lies a system designed for consolidation. Every transaction, every wallet, every programmable rule brings the financial grid closer to total visibility and control.

Once the majority of global trade occurs in tokenized form, policy decisions can be executed through code, not legislation. Debt can be repriced instantly. Access can be granted or revoked algorithmically. What was once political becomes programmable. This is not a conspiracy. It is engineering.

History shows that each monetary reset redistributes wealth from the unaware to the prepared. During the Great Depression, those who held gold preserved their purchasing power. During the inflationary 1970s, those who owned real assets, land, energy, and tangible commodities, survived the dollar’s decline.

If a digital debt reset is truly underway, the same principle applies. Tangible assets that cannot be duplicated or tokenized, such as physical gold, productive farmland, and purpose-built real estate, remain the final stores of value in a synthetic financial age.

The West’s fixation on virtual capital may prove to be its undoing. The nations and individuals who ground their wealth in real production, not virtual promise, will inherit the stability others lose.

As the digital financial architecture shifts and the risk of programmable debt increases, one asset stands apart: physical gold. Gold has been a store of value for thousands of years, unburdened by counterparty risk, code updates, or policy redesigns. When digital currencies and stablecoins tie wealth to systems beyond personal control, gold remains a tangible anchor in the real world.

Central banks added more than 900 tonnes of gold to their reserves in 2024. This is not a minor event but a clear signal that nations are moving toward real value as confidence in paper and digital money weakens.

Gold also acts as insurance. In a scenario where debt is digitized and value quietly diluted, holders of intangible assets may see their purchasing power erode. Those who own physical gold preserve stability, independence, and control. If money becomes programmable and value can be changed silently, ownership must shift to something that cannot be rewritten by code.

As tokenized finance expands and global demand for tangible assets strengthens, access to physical metals could become more limited. Securing a position early may help preserve purchasing power as premiums rise and supply chains tighten.

New World Precious Metals provides transparent guidance and access to insured, allocated holdings. Their approach emphasizes physical delivery, secure storage, and educational support for both registered and non-registered accounts.

Investors seeking to protect their wealth from systemic risk can contact New World Precious Metals to explore strategies for holding gold and silver that ensure true ownership and liquidity. Acting now allows investors to prepare from a position of strength rather than urgency when the next financial shift begins.

Gold is not speculation but preservation of value and sovereignty. In an increasingly digital world, it remains tangible, finite, and real.

Yet there is hope. Awareness is the first defence against manipulation. The same technology used for control can be repurposed for transparency and decentralization if citizens demand it. Communities can build local systems of exchange, private investors can diversify into real assets, and families can structure their portfolios to endure volatility.

Gold, once dismissed as a relic, is again becoming the benchmark of trust. Farmland, once overlooked, is the foundation of food sovereignty. Private real estate, when free of excessive leverage, remains a shield against inflation. These are not relics, they are lifelines. If policymakers insist on turning debt into code, individuals can still turn their wealth into something real.

The difference between surviving a reset and being consumed by it begins with understanding what is real.

At our firm, we assist clients in structuring wealth by Owning Assets in Order of Asset Security. We prioritize the most secure assets and safeguard those that are most vulnerable.

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Stay informed. Stay prepared. Act while choice still exists.

The real reset is not digital or financial. It is moral. Those who choose tangible value over digital illusion are choosing responsibility over dependency, and that choice will define the next chapter of freedom.

These insights connect directly to the themes explored in It Starts With Gold™, co-authored by Peter J. Merrick, TEP® and Adrian C. Spitters, CFP®. Inside the book, we show how to establish a tangible-asset foundation, measure security across asset classes, and safeguard against systemic shocks while maintaining control of your future. Visit www.ItStartsWithGold.com.

Prefer a hard copy? Order It Starts With Gold™ on Amazon today.

1. Reuters – Citigroup Considers Custody and Payment Services for Stablecoins, Crypto ETFs (Aug 14 2025)
2. World Gold Council – Gold Demand Trends: Q1 2025 (Apr 30 2025)
3. International Monetary Fund – Global Financial Stability Report (May 2025)
4. CNBC – Michael Saylor: Bitcoin as America’s Strategic Asset (Jul 2025)
5. CoinCentral – Russian Advisor Suggests U.S. Could Use Crypto to Erase National Debt (Sept 9, 2025)
6. Cointelegraph – Putin Adviser Claims U.S. Using Stablecoins, Gold to Devalue Its $37 Trillion Debt (Sept 8 2025)
7. Congress.gov – S. 394 – Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (2025) Full Text
8. Congress.gov – S. 1582 – Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (Alternate Designation) Overview
9. The White House – Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Signs GENIUS Act into Law (Jul 2025)
10. WilmerHale LLP – What the GENIUS Act Means for Payment Stablecoin Issuers, Banks, and Custodians (Jul 18 2025)
11. Mason Publishing Journals (GMU) – Analyzing Tokenization of U.S. Treasuries as On-Chain Real Yield (2025)
12. U.S. Department of the Treasury – Digital Assets and the Treasury Market (Technical Report, 2024)
13. Federal Reserve Board – Tokenization: Overview and Financial Stability Implications (Research Paper, 2023)

This article is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as financial, legal, tax, or investment advice and should not be relied upon to make specific investment decisions. The opinions expressed reflect the authors’ views at the time of writing and may change without notice as market conditions, regulations, and government policies evolve. Every investment involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future outcomes. Real estate values, interest rates, and policy environments can shift quickly, affecting portfolio results and asset values. Readers should speak directly with a qualified financial advisor, tax professional, or legal expert before acting on any ideas discussed. Peter J. Merrick, TEP®, and Adrian C. Spitters, CFP®, provide professional advisory services through independent affiliations with regulated financial firms. Neither the authors nor any affiliated entity accepts responsibility for actions taken based on this content.