Regulation
Donald Trump Announces He Will Adopt Cryptocurrency as Part of Plan to Become Bitcoin President
Donald Trump has said he will enthusiastically embrace cryptocurrencies, as part of a plan to place bitcoin at the center of his presidential campaign.
The former president appeared at a bitcoin conference over the weekend where he said he would turn the United States into a “bitcoin superpower” and turn the country into the “cryptocurrency capital of the planet.”
Mr. Trump has previously opposed digital currencies, criticizing them as being “based on nothing.” But has seemingly fully embraced technology as part of his current presidential run, and his running mate J.D. Vance has also been effusive in his support for it.
In his keynote speech at a bitcoin conference in NashvilleTennessee in front of cheering crowds, the Republican The presidential candidate has promised to make the United States the “cryptocurrency capital of the world” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin using the currency currently held by the government.
He also promised to remove Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler if elected and establish a cryptocurrency advisory committee, teasing the crowd by asking if anyone wanted to join.
“We will have regulations, but from now on the rules will be written by people who love your industry, not hate it,” he said.
Trump’s keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference demonstrated how radically his stance on cryptocurrencies has changed over time.
He hasn’t always been a fan of cryptocurrencies: in 2019, he wrote on social media that their “value is highly volatile and based on nothing.”
He has embraced digital currency in recent years, and in May his campaign began accepting cryptocurrency donations.
During the nearly 50-minute speech, Trump repeatedly tried to contrast his support for cryptocurrency with Bidenthe administration’s efforts to regulate the industry, telling the crowd that the federal government was “blocking the way.” Trump said he wanted cryptocurrency to be “mined, minted and made” in the United States.
The former president appealed to bitcoin supporters by highlighting seizures of the digital token by U.S. law enforcement.
“They took it away from you,” he said. “So as I take steps to turn that vast wealth into a permanent national asset for the benefit of all AmericansToday I repeat my promise to commute Ross Ulbricht’s sentence.”
Ulbricht created the underground drug sales website Silk Road but was sentenced to life in prison after a judge found him responsible for six overdose deaths linked to his website. Some of the nearly 800 attendees who flocked to downtown Nashville to hear Trump speak wore “Free Ross Day One” hats, a nod to Ulbricht’s prison sentence.
The U.S. Senator from Tennessee. My life is nice called Trump’s announcement of a strategic bitcoin reserve a “historic moment.”
Trump’s comments came a day after independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed the conference, also proposing the launch of a strategic bitcoin reserve.
Further reports from agencies