Regulation
‘Monumental’: Trump-Vance Ticket Considered Most Pro-Crypto Ever
Former President Donald Trump choosing the senator Mr. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate is greeted by cryptocurrency supporters as a powerful combination for the growing industry.
Trump, who used to be a cryptocurrency skeptic, has changed course in recent weeks in an attempt to position himself as the champion of the cryptocurrency industry. His announcement on Monday that Vance would be his running mate It has been greeted with enthusiasm by cryptocurrency evangelists who consider the note to be very pro-crypto.
“Monumental is a word that comes to mind,” Jayson Browder, head of public policy for Marathon Digital Holdings, told the Washington Examiner of the two running together. Marathon is the world’s largest bitcoin mining company. Cryptocurrency miners use powerful computers to solve complicated mathematical problems to add new blocks to bitcoin’s public ledger, known as the blockchain, and are rewarded with the digital token.
Vance is seen as a friendly face for the nascent industry, and notably revealed two years ago that he owned between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of bitcoin. Additionally, last month the Ohio senator began circulating a draft cryptocurrency bill that be friendly to industry, according to Politico.
Former Indiana Republican Congressman David McIntosh, now president of the conservative Club for Growth, told the Washington Examiner that among the leading vice presidential candidates in Trump’s world, Vance was perhaps the best choice for cryptocurrencies.
“I think it’s a huge development,” he told the Washington Examiner. “J.D. in particular understands, because we had a great conversation on one of these trips with Trump, that it’s the Internet all over again.”
McIntosh said that when he was in Congress in the 1990s, lawmakers intentionally chose not to regulate the internet and as a result, “innovation took off.” He sees the growing cryptocurrency space as the last development that should be allowed to thrive in the same way the internet has.
“Blockchain and all the innovations that come from it have the same potential,” he said. “And Trump and JD understand that we want to keep the United States at the forefront of this.”
It’s also worth noting that because bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are such new concepts, they have only been a viable technology during the presidencies of Barack Obama, Trump, and Joe Biden. While Republicans are generally more reluctant to regulate it, Trump has been, and if he wins, will be, the only Republican president who has had to deal with cryptocurrency regulation.
Even before Vance was chosen, the Trump campaign had received Millions of dollars in donations in the form of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to the Wall Street Journal. This comes after the campaign opened up to cryptocurrency donations a couple of months ago, amid Trump’s pro-crypto pivot.
Billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of the crypto exchange Gemini, donated a combined $1.6 million in bitcoin to Trump.
Trump hasn’t always been a supporter of the digital asset space. In fact, from a political perspective, his courtship of bitcoin and cryptocurrency supporters may be seen as a 180 degree turn.
“Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam. … I don’t like it because it’s another currency that competes with the dollar,” Trump said Fox News in 2021, a few months after leaving the presidency, adding that he wanted to make the dollar the world’s currency.
But the former president had a different idea in May when he told attendees at the Libertarian Party convention that he would defend the cryptocurrency industry.
“To the nation’s 50 million cryptocurrency holders, I say this: With your vote, I will keep [Sen.] “Elizabeth Warren and her henchmen away from your bitcoin,” Trump told the crowd, drawing a contrast with the Massachusetts Democrat, who is one of the industry’s biggest opponents.
Biden, on the other hand, has faced backlash from cryptocurrency advocates.
The Biden administration has recently found itself at odds with the industry by opposing bipartisan legislation that passed the House 279-136 and aims to bring regulatory clarity to digital assets while protecting investors and consumers.
Biden’s regulators have also clashed with cryptocurrency advocates. The Securities and Exchange Commission under Chairman Gary Gensler has been quite tough on the sector, particularly after the collapse of major exchange FTX. The SEC’s enforcement actions against cryptocurrency firms have almost doubled since Gensler took over in 2021. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission under Biden has also cracked down on the digital assets sector.
The price of bitcoin has surged in recent days following the attempted assassination of Trump and the former president’s selection of Vance as his vice president.
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Bitcoin is now touching nearly $65,000, up more than 13% in the last five days alone. Ether, a cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain, is up nearly 12% in the same time frame.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have generally had a strong year. Bitcoin investors have seen returns of 47% since the start of 2024 and returns of 80% over the past 12 months, further fueling optimism about the sector’s growth.