One of the senior advisers in the Donald Trump administration had been secretly pushing the White House to lean towards the idea of a digital dollar much before the exponential surge in crypto prices, media reports said.

Jared Kushner, former US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and his special adviser, had written a mail to then treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin in 2019, asking if a group could be assembled to brainstorm about a US digital currency, new documents have revealed.

Also read: Explained: What to watch as Fed ramps up exploration of a digital dollar

Known as the Mnuchin files, the information is part of the 250-page dump of the former treasury secretary’s emails related to cryptocurrencies during his tenure. The correspondences were obtained by CoinDesk through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Kushner embedded a link in the email of a blog written by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and former head of the Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator. The post was titled ‘US Digital Currency.’ In the note, Altman talks of a hypothetical US digital currency, which would act as a second legal tender in the country, CNBC reported.

Also read: Digital dollar may threaten monetary sovereignty of poor nations: Raghuram Rajan

Although the US will not be able to stop cryptocurrencies, it could “create the winner,” said Altman.

The note explains how the US could gain an edge over other worldwide currencies if it was the first superpower government to launch a central bank digital currency.

Also read: Digital pound could hit financial stability and erode privacy, UK lawmakers warn

“My sense is it could make sense and also be something that could ultimately change the way we pay out entitlements as well saving us a ton in waste fraud and also in transaction costs,” Kushner wrote in the email to Mnuchin.

Since no reply was found in the Mnuchin documents to the email, it could not be ascertained if the meeting proposed by Kushner took place.

That Kushner, who was mainly known for his work on the government’s foreign policy spanning from Mexico to Iraq, had an interest in cryptocurrency was previously unknown.

Also read: Why IMF thinks cryptocurrencies could destabilise financial markets

Both Kushner and Mnuchin did not comment on their crypto-related email exchanges.

Although Kushner had been well ahead in predicting the trends, the discussion of central bank digital currencies only gained momentum when China piloted its digital yuan. At present, China is ramping up efforts to introduce the e-CNY to the broader population, which would in the future replace cash and coins in circulation.

Also read: China central bank launches digital yuan wallet apps for Android, iOS

Since 2019, at least 87 countries have started exploring national digital currencies, CNBC reported quoting research from the Atlantic Council.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)