Scott Bessent took part in a Senate conformation hearing on Thursday in Washington, D.C. He was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump for Treasury secretary.

When testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, Bessent was asked by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) if the United States should adopt a central bank digital currency.

“I appreciate that President Trump has nominated you for Treasury secretary because you are sensitive to that, and what your work means to Main Street and to individuals, and getting the IRS under control, and looking at some of these provisions that are going to be in front of you,” Blackburn said. “We appreciate that you would come back a third time and look at public service.

“I do want to talk with you for a moment about CBDCs and some of the push that the Biden administration had. They did an executive order for Treasury to research development of a CBDC in the United States, and of course, this causes a lot of us heartburn because we look at what the CCP did with the digital Yuan in connection with the Olympics. Upon confirmation, how would you approach this discussion of CBDCs, and are you for them or against them? Could you end the Biden administration project to create a US-based CBDC?”

Bessent said he sees no reason for the United States to have a CBDC.

“Senator Blackburn, thank you for your remarks,” Bessent said. “On CBDCs, I see no reason for the U.S. to have a central bank digital currency. In my mind, a central bank digital currency is for countries who have no other investment alternatives. If we think about a reserve manager, a high surplus country, whether it’s Saudi Arabia, the Singapore, who ends up with call it the Chinese country like the Yuan and the RMB, if you own that currency, you have to have something to invest in. There’s very little to invest in if you want to hold the currency. You could own Chinese government bonds which don’t yield very much.”

Blackburn followed by asking “so your view of that would be a negative view?”

“I view that many of these countries are doing it out of necessity, whereas the U.S., if you hold U.S. dollars, you could hold a variety of very secure U.S. assets,” Bessent answered.