Kerby Anderson

While most Americans were focused on the election, the BRICS nations had a conference in Russia that we should not ignore. In case you are wondering, BRICS is an acronym for some of the world’s leading emerging market economies. BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

At the conference, there were 9 members and 13 new “partner nations” who were accepted. That means that the GDP of the BRICS nations is now greater than the GDP of the G7 nations. The population of the BRICS nations is more than 3 billion.

Some pundits have wondered if a BRICS currency would threaten the status of the dollar. Until recently, the assumption has been that would be unlikely since the diversity of the various foreign economies. They wouldn’t likely settle on one currency.

But Matthew Sigel (Head of Digital Assets Research, VanEck) reminds us that three of the new members are now mining bitcoin with government resources. He explained that there is an urgency in the BRICS nations to find some way to circumvent the irresponsible US fiscal policy. Russia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund is going to invest in a regional initiative to build bitcoin mining and to build AI infrastructure throughout the BRICS nations with the goal of being able to settle global trade in bitcoin.

Sigel predicts that when President Putin dies, some of these countries may reintegrate into the world’s financial system. He says these BRICS countries will be trading with bitcoin and then wonders what the US will be doing at that time.

The US dollar has been the world’s primary reserve currency for over 60 years. Now, these countries are pursuing a policy of de-dollarization that will reduce the use of dollars in world trade and financial transactions. Congress and the incoming president need to take note.