At “Bitcoin 2024,” Trump and Republicans chase cryptocurrency votes and bucks.
Tennessee (Reuters) - Former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump previously decried cryptocurrencies, labelling them as a "scam." He is now the featured speaker at one of the largest conferences in the industry.
On Saturday, the final day of the three-day Bitcoin 2024 convention in Nashville, Trump, who made the remark in 2021, will give a speech. Senators Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, and Republican former contender Vivek Ramaswamy will also be speaking.
Representative Ro Khanna of California is one of the Democrats.
Following the collapse of FTX and several other cryptocurrency companies in 2022, which caused token prices to plummet and forced some businesses into bankruptcy, the industry has rapidly recovered. Proponents of digital assets claim that voters are increasingly drawn to cryptocurrencies in this election year, though it's unclear how many of them would put cryptocurrencies ahead of other problems in the voting booth.
In an attempt to win over their support, the Republican Party is promising less regulation, which might link a currency designed to elude regulation to a significant American political party.
According to professor David Yermack of New York University's Stern School of Business, "for most of its history, crypto was really a nonpartisan issue," as neither Republicans nor Democrats were interested in learning more about it.
"I do think the Republicans in the last year or two have begun to move a little more quickly in the area."
Over 1.3 million supporters have joined Stand With Crypto, a nonprofit industry organisation supported by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. In the meantime, almost $230 million has been raised to assist friendly candidates by three significant pro-crypto super political action committees that did not exist prior to this cycle: Fairshake, Defend American Jobs, and Protect Progress.
It's already having an impact. This year, Fairshake, a super PAC that supports candidates who support cryptocurrencies, has spent more than $10 million attacking progressive Democrat Katie Porter of California in her Senate campaign. Porter lost her primary because she questioned the impact of bitcoin mining on climate change.
Proponents of cryptocurrency, such as the rich Winklevoss brothers who launched Gemini, are endorsing Trump. Each gave him $1 million in bitcoin, but they were forced to return the funds since they were more than the limit permitted by federal law.
The Federal Reserve announced in May that, overall, 7% of American adults owned or used cryptocurrency in 2023—a decrease of 3 percentage points from 2022 and 5 percentage points from 2021. On the other hand, more politicians than ever are attending the yearly convention.
One participant remarked in an interview, "There's a joke going around that the list of speakers looks like the RNC Lite," alluding to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in the middle of July.
THE NEW EMBRACE OF TRUMP
Trump's most recent demonstration of support for the sector will be at Bitcoin 2024. During a June fundraising event held in San Francisco, he attacked Democratic efforts to control the industry. Last month, he hosted bitcoin mining businesses at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Attending the Mar-a-Lago meeting was Marathon Digital Holdings' head of public policy, Jayson Browder. "We have tried to engage with the Biden administration and they have not been receptive unfortunately." "And former President Trump has been more than receptive and is now being an active supporter of our industry."
Trump recently stated that he wanted to see more American companies mine bitcoin.
The Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement measures under US President Joe Biden have displeased cryptocurrency executives.
The Biden-Harris administration will keep meeting with stakeholders and collaborating with Congress to create the appropriate protections to take use of the potential advantages and opportunities presented by the development of crypto-asset innovation, the White House informed Reuters.
If Harris wins the presidential election in November, she would probably carry forward Biden's crypto policies.
For this article, neither the Trump nor the Harris campaigns responded right away.
Traders placing bets on the possibility of a second Trump presidency are swarming asset classes that are anticipated to benefit from his administration.
"The cleanest and most direct way to play the 'Trump trade' so far," according to Cameron Dawson, chief investment officer of NewEdge Wealth, is cryptocurrency, and bitcoin in particular.
Hillary Adler, a conference attendee and co-founder of the operating system BitcoinOS, identifies as left-libertarian although she has always supported the Democratic Party. Adler, who identified as an undecided voter, stated that she does not find it surprising that some Republican lawmakers are now in favour of cryptocurrency.
"The Republicans have always had better long-tail strategies, politically," she stated. "Now, they care about crypto."
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