2024-07-29 10:46:30
The Republican candidate for the US presidency even recently stated that he wants to become the “president of cryptocurrencies”, serving the 50 million Americans who own them. Trump is also scheduled to speak today at the “Bitcoin 2024” event in Nashville, a conference that brings together cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
Trump’s choice of Jay D. Vance as his vice presidential nominee is also connected to cryptocurrencies. Vance, 39, who rose to fame with his autobiography Hillbilly Elegy, claimed to have the equivalent of $100,000 in bitcoin during his 2021 Ohio senatorial campaign.
“The Republican Party even included cryptocurrencies on their platform—a major milestone for our industry—with a simple idea: to allow this transformative technology to thrive in America,” says Christine Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association.
Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appointed by Joe Biden, has taken concrete steps to regulate the world of cryptocurrencies, which – according to him – resembles the “Wild West”. Under Gensler’s chairmanship, the SEC doubled the size of its team responsible for overseeing cryptocurrencies, which now consists of 50 people.
It also increased investigations into several specialized companies from the cryptocurrency world and imposed multi-billion dollar fines. He also called for cryptocurrencies to be subject to a stricter regime than before.
But even Trump, until recently, was against cryptocurrencies. In a tweet he posted in 2019, Trump, then president, said he was “not a fan of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” pointing out their high volatility, the fact that they are not based on real values and that they facilitate illegal activities such as trafficking drugs.
In an interview with Fox Business in 2021, Trump did not hesitate to call bitcoin a “fraud” and a “threat to the supremacy of the dollar.”
The “tune” has changed
But now, as he seeks to drum up support for his re-election campaign, Trump has begun to change his tune. In June, he met at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida with professionals specializing in bitcoin mining. He promised them that if he won the election, he would implement policies favorable to the mining industry on American soil. “Donald Trump has made a 180-degree U-turn on cryptocurrencies, and his current position lacks nuance: he only talks about the benefits without ever talking about the potential risks,” notes Herming Wang, a former SEC official and now legal counsel for the web3 and cryptoassets startups.
“However, he is opposed to Democrats who only see the negative sides of cryptocurrencies. Trump’s strategy makes sense in this regard and allows him to raise funds from the crypto community for his campaign,” explains Wong. The Republican Party’s campaign platform also now proposes, for the first time, adopting pro-crypto policies.
“We will defend the right to mine bitcoin and ensure that every American has the right to own and trade their own digital assets without government surveillance and control,” the Republican platform states.
Donald Trump’s attempts at seduction have not gone unnoticed in the industry. Nevertheless, a survey conducted by the “Crypto Council for Innovation” showed (before the candidacy of Kamala Harris) that 51% of cryptocurrency holders were ready to vote for Donald Trump.
In the first quarter of the year, too, the Trump campaign raised the equivalent of three million dollars in cryptocurrencies, mainly bitcoin and ether. Several figures active in the cryptocurrency world, such as Elon Musk, have also come out in support of Trump. “It appears that a second Trump administration would be much more open to cryptocurrencies than Biden, who has pursued aggressive regulatory actions across federal agencies,” says Blockchain Association CEO Christine Smith.