Trump believes in crypto and is prepared to fully endorse it as a legitimate asset class in the US. Republican candidate Donald Trump delivered the keynote address at the annual Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 27th, 2024, where he mapped out his vision for crypto mining and commercialization in the US. If elected, Trump is prepared to create an exclusive bitcoin reserve. “It will be the policy of my administration to keep 100% of all bitcoin the US government currently holds or acquires in the future as a core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile,” Trump said in his speech.
Trump is aware of the myriad of vague regulations that surround cryptocurrency. To battle this complex web of stakeholders, Trump aims to appoint a bitcoin and crypto advisory council, whose task would be to “design transparent regulatory guidance to the benefit of your industry” in the first 100 days of his next presidency. He said he wanted the US to become the “crypto capital of the world.” Crypto enthusiasts are optimistic that Trump’s endorsement of a reserve would shoot up prices.
The former president’s strategic change of heart and overwhelming support for cryptocurrency were first voiced at the June iteration of the presidential debate. Trump was clear that legislation on cryptocurrency would be written by lawmakers that “love the industry.” At present, the US owns more than 210,000 bitcoins worth $14 billion that were illegally seized. News of the reserve also provided details on the expansion of stable coins, which would “allow us [the US] to extend the dominance of the USD to other places around the world.” Trump also reinforced that there “will never be a CBDC while I’m president of the United States” as a means of protecting every citizen’s “right to self-custody.”
The Republican front seems unified on the matter of endorsing a crypto-positive US economy. Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, is also a crypto enthusiast, with reported crypto earnings amounting to $250,000 in 2022. Data from the Republican camp reports nearly $4 million worth of crypto donations for the 2024 presidential elections. These donations were in the form of Ether, Ripple, and the US-dollar-pegged stablecoin USDC.
It’s not every often a political figure as polarizing as former president Donald Trump offers two sides of an extremely vague coin. In the case of the American crypto story, bitcoin is no longer competing with the dollar, nor is its value pegged to “thin air.” Bitcoin is currently charting at 66,000 levels after a minor dip earlier today.
