As Elon Musk questions Fort Knox's gold, crypto voices say 'Bitcoin fixes this'

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is reportedly mulling an audit of Fort Knox, home to a significant portion of the U.S. government’s gold reserves. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul quickly extended support for the idea on social media, claiming the reserves were not reviewed annually.

Fort Knox maintains a strict policy against visitors, which it rarely modifies. In one prominent case in 1974 , it permitted journalists and members of the U.S. Congress to inspect the facility to dispel rumors about missing gold.

However, the facility’s secrecy has engendered myriad conspiracy theories related to its actual holdings. On February 17, Musk fueled further speculation by asking users on social media : “Who is confirming that gold wasn’t stolen from Fort Knox? Maybe it’s there, maybe it’s not. That gold is owned by the American public! We want to know if it’s still there.”

Bitcoiners propose a 'fix'

Bitcoiners have long touted Bitcoin’s ability to offer financial transparency, and have seized on the discussion. In reply to Musk’s concerns, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis said: “Bitcoin fixes this. A bitcoin reserve could be audited anytime 24/7 with a basic computer. It’s time to upgrade our reserves.”

Lummis previously introduced the BITCOIN Act in Congress to create a national Bitcoin reserve. Last year at the annual Bitcoin conference, President Donald Trump told crypto advocates on the campaign trail that he would create a federal stockpile of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, though no formal stockpile has been created yet.

On the Polymarket prediction platform, crypto bettors said there is a 50% chance of Musk's DOGE agency auditing Fort Knox before May.

"If there were ever a discrepancy in the gold reserves at Fort Knox, it wouldn’t be surprising to see investors turn to Bitcoin as a hedge against fiat uncertainty,” Nicolai Sondergaard, Research Analyst at Nansen, told TheStreet Crypto. "It’s often called 'digital gold' for a reason, its scarcity is built-in, and everything is trackable on-chain. For some, that kind of transparency might feel like a safer bet than wondering whether gold is really sitting in a vault somewhere.”

The U.S. government currently holds 147.3 million ounces of gold, roughly half of which is stored at the Fort Knox facility. This is a steep drop from the government's peak in 1941, when gold holdings reached 649.6 million ounces.

Blockchain as a transparency solution

Others are using the moment to trumpet blockchain technology. “Any loophole in tracking gold is a call to update the system, potentially with a publicly accessible technology like blockchain,” Agne Linge, Head of Growth at WeFi, told TheStreet Crypto. “With this, the quantity of gold in different vaults can be tracked in real-time and verified by any user, giving room for more transparency. While the conversation of tokenizing gold at the national level is not up yet [for debate], Elon Musk has hinted at the possibility of placing some of the Treasury’s operations on a blockchain .”

Other market observers, however, are underwhelmed by Musk’s concerns about missing gold at Fort Knox: “While Musk’s social media statements have historically influenced cryptocurrency markets, particularly DOGE, speculative comments about Fort Knox are unlikely to have lasting impact on Bitcoin, which typically responds more strongly to fundamental factors like regulatory developments and institutional adoption,” Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder of blockchain oracle RedStone, told TheStreet Crypto.