Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the stage after speaking at a campaign rally at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, July 20, 2024.
Anna Moneymaker |
NASHVILLE – Former President Donald Trump said if he returned to the White House, he would ensure the federal government never sells its bitcoin holdings. But he stopped short of proposing a formal federal digital currency reserve.
“For too long, our government has violated the cardinal rule that every bitcoiner knows by heart: Never sell your bitcoins,” Trump said during his keynote speech at this year’s Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, the largest bitcoin conference of the year.
The former president’s remarks came While the 2024 presidential election will focus on the race for the votes and campaign funds of America's leading fintech users.
“This afternoon, I'm laying out my plan to make sure the United States becomes the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world, and we're going to get it done,” Trump said.
But Trump's promise to simply maintain the U.S. government's current Bitcoin holdings was a less radical appeal to the crypto community compared to other proposals at the conference.
For example, during his speech at the Bitcoin Conference on Friday, third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised to create a reserve of 4 million bitcoins, starting with the bitcoin holdings the U.S. government has already amassed through criminal seizures. Kennedy said he would require the government to buy 550 bitcoins a day until the reserve reached 4 million.
Shortly after Trump's speech, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming read her own bill to create an official U.S. reserve of one million bitcoins over a five-year period.
“It will be held for at least 20 years and can be used for one purpose: to reduce our debt,” Lummis said.
The price of Bitcoin fell briefly during Trump's speech, but recovered and was slightly higher at 5:15 p.m. ET.
In his remarks, the former president sought to draw a contrast between the Republican Party's increasing acceptance of cryptocurrencies and the tough regulatory approach that characterizes the Biden administration.
“The Biden-Harris administration's suppression of crypto and bitcoin is wrong and very bad for our country,” Trump said. “Let me tell you, if they win this election, every one of you will be gone. They will be vicious. They will be ruthless. They will do things you wouldn't believe.”
Trump delivered a series of crypto-friendly promises to a crowd of cheering Bitcoin supporters, pledging to end President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ “anti-crypto crusade.”
“On day one, I'm going to fire Gary Gensler,” Trump said, referring to the Biden-appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission who has taken an aggressive approach to crypto regulation.
The president does not have the power to fire appointed commissioners. Even if Trump were to appoint a new SEC chairman, Gensler would remain a commissioner of the independent agency.
The former president also promised to establish a “Presidential Advisory Council on Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies.”
“The rules are written by people who love your industry, not people who hate it,” Trump said.
The Republican presidential candidate also held a supporting fundraiser in Nashville, where tickets cost $844,600. In June, David Bailey, CEO of BTC Inc. and organizer of the conference, pledged to raise $100 million and attract more than 5 million voters for Trump's re-election, as the Bitcoin sector increasingly turns to the Trump camp for support.
Trump taking the main stage to address the Bitcoin community directly is the latest move in a months-long campaign to appeal to the crypto community, which has included accepting donations in virtual tokens, promising to end President Joe Biden's “war on crypto” and advocating that all Bitcoin be made in America going forward. It's also quite a reversal from the Republican presidential candidate.
Trump publicly rejected Bitcoin when he was in the White House. In July 2019, he said he was “not a fan” of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He said tokens are not money, their value is “based on nothing” and warned that unregulated crypto assets could facilitate drug trafficking and “other illegal activities.”
“Bitcoin just seems like a scam,” he told Fox in a phone interview in 2021. “I don't like it because it's another currency competing with the dollar.”
“I want the dollar to be the currency of the world, I've always said that,” Trump continued in his interview with Fox.
But five years, a lost presidential election and millions of dollars from the crypto lobby later, the Republican presidential candidate sang the praises of the digital currency at the biggest Bitcoin conference of the year, which began in Nashville on Thursday.
“Bitcoin stands for freedom, sovereignty and independence from government coercion and control,” Trump said in his keynote speech.
Trump's shift in Bitcoin policy comes as the Republican Party promises to cut red tape from the Biden-Harris administration and works to make cryptocurrency regulation a November election issue, especially as inflation consistently ranks as voters' top priority in polls.
With the increasing presence of crypto lobbyists and supporters in Washington, the question is whether the Democratic Party will maintain its tough regulatory approach of recent years or soften its position.
“Any presidential candidate must understand that voters who favor digital assets and innovation are here to stay,” Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel of North Carolina said in an interview with CNBC, adding that cryptocurrency regulation should not become a “football of partisan politics.”
“I want this to remain a bipartisan issue. I don't want Donald Trump to politicize this issue,” said Rep. Nickel.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California echoed Rep. Nickel's sentiments, saying cryptocurrencies should not become a partisan political debate but should be regulated like any technology.
“I don't really understand why this is biased. Being against bitcoin is like being against cell phones. It's like being against AI. It's like being against laptops,” Khanna told CNBC. “It's a technology. There needs to be thoughtful regulations on this technology, but it's a technology that's gone from about $10,000 to $80,000 in value.”
Representatives Khanna and Nickel were two of the few Democrats who attended the Bitcoin conference.
Organizers of the Bitcoin 2024 conference say they briefly had talks to invite Vice President Kamala Harris to the conference, but she ultimately declined. But billionaire businessman Mark Cuban posted on X that the Harris campaign had reached out to them with questions about cryptocurrency, so it seems the vice president is looking into this area and may want to find out what impact her policies could have if she is elected president.
“I think we'll be hearing from Vice President Harris on this soon. And I'm very optimistic that we're going to get a reset. And I think that's going to play a big role,” said Rep. Nickel. “This issue is not going away. And we need to make sure that we continue to address it in a bipartisan manner.”
Harris' team has already begun contacting people close to crypto companies to arrange meetings, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.
Trump's U-turn on Bitcoin
The recent thaw in Trump's sentiment toward the digital asset space coincided with a sudden influx of interest and money from the country's top tech talent.
He has raised more than $4 million in a mix of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, the dollar-pegged stablecoin USDC, and various memecoins. Donors come from 12 states, including some swing states.
Crypto billionaire twins and venture capitalists Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss led the charge, each donating 15.57 bitcoin, or just over $1 million at the time of their donation, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission. However, they received a partial refund because their contributions exceeded the $844,600 limit.
Numerous other venture capitalists are in favor of cryptocurrencies and have also pledged millions to the Trump campaign.
Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz told Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) staff that they plan to make significant donations to political action committees in support of Trump's campaign. The Sequoia Capital partners are supporting Trump, as is venture investor David Sacks, who helped the former president raise $12 million at a fundraiser he hosted at his San Francisco home. The centralized crypto exchange's chief legal counsel Coinbase and blockchain giant Ripple were both there.
These members of the tech elite also make generous contributions to pro-crypto super PACs like Fairshake, which has raised more than $200 million to elect pro-crypto candidates across the ballot and on both sides of the aisle.
But according to NBC News reports, the vice president's team is trying to win the support of some undecided donors from major tech companies, many of whom held off while President Joe Biden remained in the race. Their minds may change now that the vice president is the party's de facto nominee.
It helps that Harris has a long track record of success in California.
She has been collecting donations in the tech community for years, including from employees of Amazon, alphabet, Microsoft And Apple.
“The turnaround that has taken place in the last three days is dramatic,” Steve Westly, a venture capitalist and former California gubernatorial candidate, told NBC News. “I don't think I've ever seen such a wave of enthusiasm in any campaign I've been involved in.”
This comes as Trump's vice presidential candidate JD Vance plans to hold a fundraiser in Palo Alto on Monday.
— CNBC's Rebecca Picciotto contributed to this report.
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