Donald Trump is trying to win the votes of cryptocurrency investors by promising to make the US a “Bitcoin superpower” with much less regulation.
The former president even offered them a high-profile government trophy when he delivered a speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on Saturday.
“On day one, I’m firing Gary Gensler,” he told the crowd, speaking of the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trump received so much applause from the crowd that he repeated his promise, adding, “I didn’t realize he was so unpopular.”
Gensler would be replaced by someone who is friendly to crypto investors and would create a crypto advisory board to draft regulations.
Donald Trump is trying to win the votes of cryptocurrency investors by promising to make the US a ‘Bitcoin superpower’ with much less regulation
Bitcoin’s price dropped below $67,000 when Trump began speaking, but rose to $69,000 within an hour as investors heard his pro-crypto speech.
Trump made numerous promises to make the US the “crypto capital” of the world, in contrast to President Joe Biden’s efforts to heavily regulate the economy.
“I promise the Bitcoin community that the day I take the oath, the anti-crypto crusade of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be over. It will end. It will be done,” he said.
“Once I am sworn in, the prosecution and weapons production against your industry will stop.”
He warned that if Vice President Harris won, “every one of you will be gone. They will be mean. They will be ruthless. They will do things you would not believe.”
“Kamala is worse than Joe, she’s a radical, crazy, she’s against crypto. Now there’s a little honeymoon period going on,” he added.
Trump’s embrace of cryptocurrencies is a dramatic change from three years ago, when he was fiercely opposed to them. Even big cryptocurrency proponents admit the former president is “pampering” them to win votes.
“Bitcoin, it just looks like a scam,” Trump said in 2021, calling it “another currency that competes with the dollar.”
“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money and whose value is very unpredictable and comes out of thin air,” he said in 2019, linking the cryptocurrency to drug trafficking and criminals.
The former president even offered them a striking government garb when he delivered a speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on Saturday.
“We have only one real currency in the US, and it’s stronger than ever. It’s called the US dollar!”
But wealthy donors and Trump’s desire to run for president again no matter what have helped him on his path to Damascus conversion, and he hopes that will give him an edge.
In Nashville, he tried to sell himself as “the crypto president,” in contrast to Harris, who reportedly privately told a donor that “Bitcoin is money for criminals.”
“This is the steel industry of 100 years ago,” Trump claimed.
“If we don’t do it, China and others will. Let’s do it right. If crypto is going to be the future, I want it to be mined, minted, and made in the US.”
“It’s not going to be made anywhere else. And if bitcoin goes to the moon, as we say… I want America to be the nation that leads the way, and that’s what’s going to happen. So you’re going to be very happy with me.”
Trump outlined his plan to create a framework for the expansion of stablecoins and pledged to retain all cryptocurrencies owned by the U.S. government.
He would then expand these holdings to create a “strategic national Bitcoin stockpile.”
“The US laws are too unclear, too strict, too harsh, too strict,” he said.
Trump would also end the Treasury Department’s efforts to create a digital central bank currency that would compete with Bitcoin and other currencies.
“As long as I’m president of the United States, there will never be a CBDC,” he said.
Trump’s about-face on cryptocurrencies followed investors pouring tens of millions into his campaign coffers and Americans sending $4 million in crypto donations.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who sued Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their idea for Facebook, both donated $1 million to his campaign.
They also both sent $250,000 to Elon Musk’s America PAC, which funnels money to Trump’s campaign.
Tyler Winklevoss claimed in a 1,417-word Twitter tirade that the Biden administration has “openly declared war on crypto” and supported Trump for president.
“It’s time for the crypto army to send a message to Washington. That attacking us is political suicide,” he wrote.
He alleged that Biden “weaponized multiple government agencies to bully, harass and sue the good players in our industry in an effort to destroy it.”
“This administration’s actions are nothing short of an unprecedented abuse of power, used solely for perverse political gain, at the expense of innovation, the American taxpayer, and the American economy.”
Winklevoss and other crypto proponents also clashed with Harris after she declined an invitation to speak at Saturday’s event in Nashville.
“The Biden-Harris administration has been waging all-out war on the crypto industry for 4 years,” he wrote on Twitter.
‘Despite all this, Kamala is still invited to the Bitcoin Conf[erence] in Nashville and had the opportunity to talk to our industry and improve relationships.
‘What does she do? She refuses. She can’t even take the first step and show up to mend the fences.
“Our industry will not forget this. We will show no mercy in November.”