The US presidential election is just over four months away and with both sides stepping up the efforts to win votes, Donald Trump seems to be the frontrunner with Americans interested in cryptocurrency.
Trump delivered a keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference last Friday, a speech which seemed to be well received by the audience with his words peppered with cheers and hollering from the crowd throughout.
“Our country is blessed to have the extraordinary talent, energy and genius represented in this room,” he said. “It really is great genius – not all of you but most of you, many of you.”
“This is the kind of spirit that built America and is the kind of spirit that is going to help us make America great again,” he continued, the use of his trademark slogan at the end of this line receiving a chorus of cheers.
The 45th President of the US and Republican nominee for this year’s contest was one of several notable speakers and attendees at the Bitcoin 2024 trade show, held in Nashville, Tennessee.
In the early stages of his speech, Trump threw a range of shout outs to some attendees from very different fields – investment figures Michael Saylor and Cathie Wood, libertarian politics father and son Ron and Rand Paul, and 1990s and 2000s country rap star Kid Rock.
Crypto is a huge industry in the US, and in the context of this year’s election the industry has become increasingly politically active. The industry has two political action committees (PACs), Fairshake and Stand with Crypto, which have been encouraging crypto investors to back pro-industry candidates.
Trump has been notably more enthusiastic about crypto than incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden, who has now dropped out of the presidential race, and Biden’s likely successor Kamala Harris is not the most popular political figure in US crypto circles.
“This afternoon I’m laying out my plan to ensure that the USwill be the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world,” Trump said.
“If crypto is going to define the future I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA, it’s going to be. It’s not going to be anywhere else. If Bitcoin is going to the moon, I want America to be the nation that leads the way.”
A notable plan outlined by Trump, delivered in his trademark blunt and on-the-nose style and receiving raucous response from the audience, was his commitment that “on day one I will fire Gary Gensler and will appoint a new SEC Chairman who believed America should build the future not block the future”.
On the aforementioned topic of who isn’t popular in US crypto circles, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Gary Gensler is one of the biggest names on the list.
Gensler has been accused of overregulating the sector and taking a confrontational approach to it. Although he has overseen the approval of the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, this has not done much to approve his image in the eyes of American crypto investors and businesspeople.
Firing an SEC Chair seen by some as an over-regulator on ‘day one’ seems to be the first component of Trump’s plan for light touch regulation of the industry. If his comments at Bitcoin 2024 are anything to go by, Trump believes this style of regulation is essential for the US to become the global leader in Bitcoin mining and ownership.
This forms part of Trump’s wider approach to international relations and global strategy. Countering China’s global economic influence and growth, a familiar Trump talking point, is also on his agenda for crypto.
“If we don’t embrace crypto and bitcoin technology, China will, other countries will,” Trump said. “They’ll dominate, and we cannot let China dominate. They are making too much progress as it is.”
To secure world leadership for the US in crypto, Trump states that he will build up the country’s stockpile of Bitcoin, similar to government stockpiles of gold. 100% of Bitcoin will be retained by the US government under his administration as a ‘strategic national bitcoin stockpile’.
If the cheers and applause Trump received at Bitcoin 2024 last week are anything to go by, he is certainly winning the race for crypto votes and donations. According to Trump, in the two months since he allowed crypto donations to his campaign he has received $25m (£25m) in donations, although it is not clear whether this was in fiat or crypto.
Given his long-standing support for crypto – although he is notably a vocal opponent of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) – this is unsurprising. Although some Democrats are also pro-crypto, it is definitely a trend seen more in the Republican Party.
The Democrats seem to be working for a reset of their relationship with the US crypto sector, with party Congressman Wiley Nickel stating at Bitcoin 2024 that Kamala Harris is adopting a “forward-looking approach to digital assets and blockchain technology”.
However, as she has previously described Bitcoin as a tool for criminal activity, Harris will have a big job on her hands in winning over industry votes and donations from her Republican counterpart.