Former President Donald Trump burnished his credentials as Bitcoin’s best friend with a series of major announcements, including adding crypto to the government’s reserves, in a barnstorming speech to assembled crypto devotees at the Bitcoin 2024 Nashville conference.
“This afternoon, I’m laying out my plan to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world and we’ll get it done,” said Donald Trump at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennesse on Saturday.
To roars of approval from the 5,000-strong audience, Trump promised, “On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler.” He continued: “I pledge to the Bitcoin community that the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s anti-crypto crusade will be over.”
JUST IN: Crowd goes absolutely nuts after Donald Trump vows to fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler during the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
Trump was clearly taken aback at the crowd's reaction when he made the announcement.
"On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler and… pic.twitter.com/0CyOMaY6FY
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 27, 2024
Trump: crypto rules “will be written by people who love your industry”
“We will have regulations, but from now on, the rules will be written by people who love your industry, not hate your industry,” Trump proclaimed, in a statement that will send shivers down the spines of all US financial regulators and those elsewhere. He explicitly called for a reining in of enforcement activity by US financial regulators.
Likening the battles of the crypto industry with his own run-ins with the law, he stated that he would end “repression”. “They slander you as criminals but that happened to me, too, because I said the election was rigged,” said Trump.
In a wide-ranging speech, he also revealed that if elected, his administration would create a crypto industry presidential advisory council.
He also said that the Fed would be forbidden from creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC), in a move that aligns with Republican activity at the state level to pass laws banning the use of a CBDC on privacy grounds.
A Trump presidency would also see the ushering in of a regulatory framework for stablecoins.
More astute and strategic minds on Wall Street may realize that regulation is an essential prerequisite for crypto to achieve mainstream adoption, and therefore seek to temper some of the ‘rip up all the rules’ Trumpian messaging in as far as it translates into policy.
Trump administration would create a strategic national bitcoin stockpile
The former president, who is standing for election in November, also proclaimed his intention to create a “strategic national bitcoin stockpile”, which would initially at least be made up of the bitcoin currently held by the Department of Justice, amounting to 210,000 BTC.
He did not indicate whether the government should add to that pile by buying BTC in the open market or instead seek to ‘seize and hold’ crypto from criminals.
JUST IN – Trump, if President, pledges to form a Bitcoin Reserve, using 210,000 Bitcoin seized by the Department of Justice, as the core of a new “Strategic National Bitcoin Stockpile.” pic.twitter.com/ucvlyP3BDx
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) July 27, 2024
Never sell your bitcoin says Trumps, says it could surpass the market cap of gold
Trump boldly declared, “Never sell your bitcoin,” and proclaimed that bitcoin could one day probably surpass the market cap of gold. The ‘digital gold’ thesis has long underpinned Bitcoin’s value proposition.
Even if the bitcoin price has so far failed to retake the $70,000 level following Trump’s remarks, his ‘Never sell’ will likely contribute to putting a floor under the price, regardless of the outcome of the presidential election.
JUST IN:
Donald Trump says #Bitcoin will one day probably surpass the market cap of Gold.pic.twitter.com/GTAjuIQDZ1
— wallstreetbets (@wallstreetbets) July 27, 2024
Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming also attended the conference. The lawmaker revealed that she is drafting a bill to instruct the government to build a stockpile of 1 million BTC over a five-year period. The government would have to hold the bitcoin for a minimum of 20 years. The bitcoin held during that time could only be used to pay down the US national debt.
Cantor Fitzgerald sets up $2 billion lending program to finance bitcoin
Meanwhile, financial services giant Cantor Fitzgerald’s CEO, Howard Lutnick, revealed plans for the firm to initiate a $2 billion lending program financing Bitcoin. Clients holding bitcoin will be able to access the leverage. According to a Bloomberg report, the firm will partner with select bitcoin custodians for its lending facility.
In yet another sign of the institutional turnaround on the crypto asset class, Lutnick, in colorful language, said the company owns a “shedload of bitcoin”.
Cantor Fitzgerald has donated $1.4 million to Trump-backing PACs this election cycle. The CEO is hosting a fundraiser for Trump in August.
Other keynote speakers at the conference included Edward Snowden, the famously pro-crypto former National Security Agency contractor who fled to Russia after leaking government surveillance information. Snowden was arguably not totally on board with the Trump worship: “Cast a vote, but don’t join a cult.”
Harris is a know-show, but are Dems warming to crypto?
Rumors had swirled earlier in the week that the presumptive Democrat nominee for president, Kamala Harris, might speak at the Bitcoin 2024 conference, but this did not come to pass.
However, as Mark Cuban has revealed, the Democrats have reached out to him and others in the crypto world, seeking a possible reset of the party’s stance, which has been deemed hostile by many in the industry. As is to be expected for a Californian politician, Harris has strong links with Silicon Valley and is thought to favor a more ‘pro-innovation’ approach to crypto.
JUST IN:
“The feedback I’m getting… is that she will be far more open to business,” says Cuban pic.twitter.com/5hKBfon9MY
— Radar
(@RadarHits) July 23, 2024
Wiley Nickel, a North Carolina Democratic lawmaker, attended the jamboree and publicly called for a crypto reset. Along with other Democrats, he has sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee urging a Harris administration to “select a pro-innovation SEC chair.”
Nickel did get some polite applause for his comments but was then roundly booed when he reminded the audience about Trump’s anti-bitcoin position when he was president when he said crypto was “a scam” and “based on thin air.”
Doubling down, he stated that Trump was “totally full of shit” on crypto.
“Historic moment” for crypto, Trump campaign backed by bitcoin miners
As of two days ago, Trump’s campaign had pulled in $4 million in crypto donations. That figure could be much more now.
Brandon Green, the conference’s chief of staff said of Trump’s Damoclean conversion: “Trump is a businessman and an entrepreneur, and he sees the opportunity that bitcoin affords the US and himself.”
Many in the crypto industry are lining up behind the Trump campaign for obvious reasons, and no more so than in the bitcoin mining sector.
Cleanspark CEO Zachary Bradford labeled the Trump speech “a historic moment.” Trump has hosted at least one meeting of mining executives at his Florida residence and has spoken of his desire to make bitcoin mining the sole preserve of the US. Bradford predicted that “America will become the world’s undisputed Bitcoin mining powerhouse.”
Bitcoin price action still rangebound for now as Trump election campaign stalls
However, the response in the markets has not been as ecstatic as some may have hoped. Bitcoin briefly spiked above $69,000 but has since fallen back to 67,380.
The underwhelming response is partly because the news was already baked into the price and perhaps more pertinently because the “Trump trade” does not look as sure a bet as it was when Joe Biden was Trump’s presidential adversary.
Harris is closing the gap on Trump and has passed him in some polls, although still within the margin of error.
Betting on crypto-powered prediction market, Polymarket has Trump on 57 and Harris on 39, while PredictIt has the price at 54/49, respectively.
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