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Trump Calls for US to Be ‘Crypto Capital of the Planet’ in Appeal to Nashville Bitcoin Conference
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Former president Donald Trump On Saturday he laid out his plans to embrace wholeheartedly cryptocurrency If elected to a second term, he will tell hundreds of cheering digital token supporters that he wants the United States to become a “bitcoin superpower” under his leadership.
In his programmatic speech to a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, the Republican presidential candidate promised to make the United States the “cryptocurrency capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin using the currency currently held by the government.
He also promised to remove the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Author: Gary Gensler If elected, establish a cryptocurrency advisory committee, teasing the crowd by asking attendees 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.
Speaking at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, former President Donald Trump said he would promote the use of bitcoin in the United States if elected.
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 pit his support for cryptocurrency against the Biden administration efforts to regulate the sectortelling 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 that away from you,” he said. “So, as I take steps to transform that vast wealth into a permanent national asset for the benefit of all Americans, today I repeat my pledge to commute Ross Ulbricht’s sentence.”
Ulbricht created the underground drug-selling 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.
Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn called Trump’s announcement of a strategic bitcoin reserve a “historic moment.”
Trump’s comments came a day after those of the independent presidential candidate by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He spoke at the conference and also proposed the launch of a strategic bitcoin reserve.
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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.