Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has backtracked on cryptocurrencies by calling on the US to become a global Bitcoin leader.Speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, TN over the weekend, Trump pledged to create a national Bitcoin stockpile to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world.”Commentators said Trump is the first major candidate from a major political party to make Bitcoin and cryptocurrency a campaign issue and the first American president to speak at a Bitcoin event..Meanwhile, shares of US-based crypto companies jumped after Trump’s speech. Crypto exchange Coinbase's shares climbed 3%, while miners Bitfarms, Riot Platforms and CleanSpark were up between 4% and 5%.Trump has also become the first presidential candidate to accept campaign donation as in crypto, announcing Saturday that he has raised USD$25 million in Bitcoin donations.“If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted, and made in the USA,” Trump said. “If Bitcoin is going to the moon, as they say, ‘it’s going to the moon,’ I want America to be the nation that leads the way.”If elected, Trump said he would create the first-ever Strategic National Bitcoin Stockpile seeded with about 210,000 bitcoins worth about $13 billion. The US government is already one of the largest Bitcoin holders in the world via law enforcement seizures..“For too long, our government has violated a cardinal rule that every Bitcoiner knows by heart: never sell your Bitcoin,” he said. “If I am elected, it will be the policy of my administration for the United States of America to keep 100% of all the Bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds or acquires.”The irony is that in 2021 Trump told Fox News Bitcoin was a “scam” against the US dollar, and a “disaster waiting to happen.”Adam O’Brien, co-founder of Calgary-based Bitcoin Well, was in attendance for Trump’s speech and said although it was positive for the Bitcoin movement, Trump is slow to come around to the virtues of digital currency.“Bitcoin doesn't need any politicians. Politicians need Bitcoin, and most politicians figure that out sooner or later,” he said. “It was a matter of time for Trump once he saw the entirety of the ‘Freedom’ community, which is basically over the half the aisle at this point, right?“O’Brien said it was actually RFK Jr. who “stole the show” with his Bitcoin chops. He suggested RFK be named Commerce Secretary in a Trump administration.“He actually understands Bitcoin. Trump treated the speech a lot more like a Trump speech and a lot less like a Bitcoin speech. RFK, showed off and flexed his Bitcoin muscles.“But now Trump is threatening to fire Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) chairperson Gary Gensler on his first day in office for cracking down on what it describes as “hucksters” after the so-called ‘King of Crypto’ Sam Bankman-Fried was jailed for 25 years for stealing billions from customers of his crypto exchange..Trump has attempted to frame is as a partisan issue calling attempts by the Biden administration to regulate the industry “anti-crypto” and accused opponent Kamala Harris of trying to undermine the industry.In his speech, Trump said he would support the Bitcoin mining industry by promoting the massive amounts of electricity needed to mine it with fossil fuels.
Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has backtracked on cryptocurrencies by calling on the US to become a global Bitcoin leader.Speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, TN over the weekend, Trump pledged to create a national Bitcoin stockpile to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world.”Commentators said Trump is the first major candidate from a major political party to make Bitcoin and cryptocurrency a campaign issue and the first American president to speak at a Bitcoin event..Meanwhile, shares of US-based crypto companies jumped after Trump’s speech. Crypto exchange Coinbase's shares climbed 3%, while miners Bitfarms, Riot Platforms and CleanSpark were up between 4% and 5%.Trump has also become the first presidential candidate to accept campaign donation as in crypto, announcing Saturday that he has raised USD$25 million in Bitcoin donations.“If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted, and made in the USA,” Trump said. “If Bitcoin is going to the moon, as they say, ‘it’s going to the moon,’ I want America to be the nation that leads the way.”If elected, Trump said he would create the first-ever Strategic National Bitcoin Stockpile seeded with about 210,000 bitcoins worth about $13 billion. The US government is already one of the largest Bitcoin holders in the world via law enforcement seizures..“For too long, our government has violated a cardinal rule that every Bitcoiner knows by heart: never sell your Bitcoin,” he said. “If I am elected, it will be the policy of my administration for the United States of America to keep 100% of all the Bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds or acquires.”The irony is that in 2021 Trump told Fox News Bitcoin was a “scam” against the US dollar, and a “disaster waiting to happen.”Adam O’Brien, co-founder of Calgary-based Bitcoin Well, was in attendance for Trump’s speech and said although it was positive for the Bitcoin movement, Trump is slow to come around to the virtues of digital currency.“Bitcoin doesn't need any politicians. Politicians need Bitcoin, and most politicians figure that out sooner or later,” he said. “It was a matter of time for Trump once he saw the entirety of the ‘Freedom’ community, which is basically over the half the aisle at this point, right?“O’Brien said it was actually RFK Jr. who “stole the show” with his Bitcoin chops. He suggested RFK be named Commerce Secretary in a Trump administration.“He actually understands Bitcoin. Trump treated the speech a lot more like a Trump speech and a lot less like a Bitcoin speech. RFK, showed off and flexed his Bitcoin muscles.“But now Trump is threatening to fire Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) chairperson Gary Gensler on his first day in office for cracking down on what it describes as “hucksters” after the so-called ‘King of Crypto’ Sam Bankman-Fried was jailed for 25 years for stealing billions from customers of his crypto exchange..Trump has attempted to frame is as a partisan issue calling attempts by the Biden administration to regulate the industry “anti-crypto” and accused opponent Kamala Harris of trying to undermine the industry.In his speech, Trump said he would support the Bitcoin mining industry by promoting the massive amounts of electricity needed to mine it with fossil fuels.
