An OnMessage survey conducted of Texas voters in March 2022 indicates that Texans may overwhelmingly support the state owning and holding bitcoin to combat inflation. That bears some significant real-world consequences.
Historic Inflation Has Institutions Buying Up Bitcoin
The U.S. inflation rate hit 8.5 percent in March, the highest since December 1981. Consumer food prices rose to 8.8 percent in March. Grocery prices rose a whopping 10 percent. Again, this is the largest increase in the Consumer Price Index since May 1981.
Heading into the year, some economic analysts were predicting seven base rate interest hikes in 2022. Experts agree the Fed will likely get aggressive with interest rate hikes, however, interest rate increases take time to filter through the economy and make a real difference in key economic indicators. For that reason, institutions are buying up bitcoin and holding it as a hedge against inflation.
Between December 30, 2021 and January 31, 2022, software company MicroStrategy purchased $25 million in bitcoin. The company purchased another $190.5 million worth of bitcoin in February and March this year.
MicroStrategy isn’t the only company using bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. Tesla also holds a lot of bitcoin. Other corporate holders of bitcoin include Galaxy Digital, Square, Coinbase, Voyager Digital, Riot Blockchain, DigitalX, and Hive Blockchain.
Even the U.S. government owns bitcoin, though most of that was seized during criminal investigations rather than an investment strategy.
For Texans, holding bitcoin could be a legitimate strategy for the state to hedge against inflation and protect the state treasury.
How Many Texans Support the State Owning Bitcoin?
According to the OnMessage survey, Texans are more likely to support the state owning bitcoin than oppose it. Forty-one percent of survey respondents said they’d support the state owning and holding bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. Only 35 percent opposed.
Support for the cause was consistent among Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Forty-two percent of Democrats and the same percentage of Republicans said they were in favor of Texas holding bitcoin to hedge against inflation. Only 39 percent of Independents responded to the question favorably. Thirty-eight percent of Democrats opposed, 36 percent of Independents opposed, and 34 percent of Republicans opposed. The remainder of respondents refused to answer the question or didn’t know.
Conclusion: Regardless of political affiliation, support for the state of Texas holding bitcoin saw the same support across the board.
Will Texas Buy Bitcoin?
On another survey question, 52 percent of respondents said they were concerned about inflation. More people were concerned about inflation than jobs, the economy, national security, or immigration and border security.
Among Democrats, more people were concerned about jobs and the economy, but 42 percent said they were concerned about inflation.
Sixty percent of Republicans said they care more about inflation than other issues. Fifty-three percent are concerned about immigration and border security while 47 percent care more about national security and 40 percent care more about jobs and the economy.
Fifty-two percent of Independents said they care more about inflation than any other issue. Forty-four percent care more about jobs and the economy.
Inflation is a primary or secondary issue across the board regardless of political affiliation. With Democrats, the margin between those who care about inflation versus those who care more about jobs and the economy is only three percent while the margin between those who care more about inflation versus those who care more about COVID-19 is two percent. More Democrats care about inflation.
Since inflation is a major concern among Texans of all political persuasions and most Texans support the state buying bitcoin to hedge against inflation, it’s possible the state may opt to do so. However, political decisions often take time so if the state ever gets around to it, inflation may not be as high as it is now.
Still, the survey results do indicate that Texans support the state holding bitcoin to lessen the impact of inflation.