Regulation
Trump Proposes Creating Strategic National Stockpile of Cryptocurrencies at Bitcoin Conference
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the stage after speaking at a campaign rally at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, July 20, 2024.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
The former president’s remarks were made as the race to capture the votes and campaign money of early adopters of fintech in the United States takes center stage in the 2024 presidential race.
“This afternoon, I am laying out my plan to ensure that the United States will be the cryptocurrency capital of the planet and the global bitcoin superpower and we will get there,” Trump said.
But Trump’s promise to simply maintain the U.S. government’s current bitcoin holdings was a less radical proposal aimed at crypto advocates than other proposals presented at the conference.
Third party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.For example, during his speech at the Bitcoin conference on Friday, Kennedy promised to launch a reserve of 4 million bitcoins, starting with bitcoin holdings that the U.S. government has already accumulated from criminal seizures. Kennedy said he would require the government to buy 550 bitcoins per day until the reserve reaches 4 million.
Shortly after Trump’s speech, Senator Cynthia Lummis, Republican of Wyoming, read her own legislative proposal to establish an official U.S. federal reserve of 1 million bitcoins over five years.
“It will be held for at least 20 years and can be used for one purpose only: to reduce our debt,” Lummis said.
Bitcoin’s price briefly dipped during Trump’s speech, but recovered and was up slightly for the day as of 5:15 p.m. ET.
Throughout his speech, the former president took pains to draw contrasts between the Republican Party’s growing adoption of cryptocurrency and the hardline regulatory approach that has characterized the Biden administration.
“The Biden-Harris administration’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies and bitcoin is wrong and it’s very bad for our country,” Trump said. “Let me tell you, if they win this election, every single one of you will be gone. They will be vicious. They will be ruthless. They will do things you wouldn’t imagine.”
Trump then listed a series of pro-cryptocurrency promises to a crowd of enthusiastic bitcoin supporters, vowing to dismantle what he called the “anti-cryptocurrency crusade” of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler,” Trump said, referring to the Biden-appointed board chairman. Securities and Exchange Commission which has taken an aggressive approach to regulating cryptocurrencies.
The president does not have the power to remove appointed commissioners. Even if Trump were to appoint a new SEC chairman, Gensler would remain a commissioner at the independent agency.
The former president also pledged to create a “presidential advisory council on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.”
“The rules will be written by people who love your industry, not by people who hate it,” Trump said.
The Republican presidential candidate also held a fundraiser in Nashville, with tickets peaking at $844,600In June, BTC Inc. CEO David Baileywhich organized the conference, has pledged to raise $100 million and mobilize more than 5,000,000 voters for Trump’s re-election effort, as the bitcoin industry increasingly turns to the Trump camp for support.
Trump’s takeover of the main stage to speak directly to the Bitcoin community is the latest in a months-long campaign to appeal to the crypto contingent, including accept donations in virtual tokenspledging to end President Joe Biden’s “war on crypto” and advocating that all future bitcoins will be made in AmericaIt is also a real turnaround on the part of the Republican presidential candidate.
Trump was publicly dismissed Bitcoin when he was in the White House. July 2019He said he was “not a fan” of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He said the tokens are not money, that their value is “based on hot air,” and warned that unregulated crypto assets could facilitate drug trafficking, among other “illegal activities.”
“Bitcoin just looks like a scam,” he told Fox in a 2021 phone interview. “I don’t like it because it’s another currency that competes with the dollar.”
“I want the dollar to be the currency of the world, that’s what I’ve always said,” Trump continued in his conversation with Fox.
But five years later, a lost presidential election and millions of dollars from the crypto lobby, the Republican presidential candidate has sung the praises of digital currency. The largest Bitcoin conference of the year in Nashville, which began Thursday.
“Bitcoin represents freedom, sovereignty and independence from government coercion and control,” Trump said in his opening remarks.
Trump’s change of heart on bitcoin comes as the Republican Party vows to unravel the bureaucracy of the Biden-Harris administration, pushing to make cryptocurrency regulation a ballot issue for November, especially as inflation consistently ranks as a top priority for voters in polls.
As cryptocurrency lobbyists and advocates become increasingly present in Washington, it is questionable whether the Democratic Party will stick to the hard-line regulatory approach of recent years or soften its stance.
“Every presidential candidate needs to understand that voters who support digital assets and innovation are here to stay,” Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel of North Carolina said in an interview with CNBC, adding that cryptocurrency regulation should not become a “partisan political issue.”
“I want this issue to remain a bipartisan issue. I don’t want Donald Trump to politicize this issue,” Rep. Nickel said.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., echoed Rep. Nickel’s sentiment, saying that crypto should not become a partisan talking point, but will require regulation like any technology.
“I don’t really see why it’s partisan. Being against bitcoin is like being against cell phones. It’s like being against artificial intelligence. It’s like being against laptops,” Khanna told CNBC. “It’s a technology. There needs to be thoughtful regulation of it, but it’s a technology that’s gone from $10,000 to $80,000.”
Reps. Khanna and Nickel were two of the only Democrats to attend the Bitcoin conference.
Bitcoin Conference 2024 Organizers said they briefly discussed having Vice President Kamala Harris attend the conference, but she ultimately declined. But billionaire businessman Mark Cuban posted on X that Harris’ campaign had asked him about cryptocurrency. So it seems the vice president is studying this space and potentially figuring out where her policies, if elected president, might end up.
“I think we’re going to hear from Vice President Harris on this soon. And I’m very optimistic that we’re going to have a reset. And I think that’s going to be very important,” Rep. Nickel said. “This issue is not going to go away. And we need to make sure that we continue to address it in a bipartisan way.”
Harris’ team has already started reaching out to people close to cryptocurrency companies to set up meetings, the The Financial Times reported on Saturday.
Trump’s recent thaw in sentiment toward the digital asset sector has coincided with a sudden influx of interest and money from the country’s top tech talent.
It has raised more than $4 million in a mix of cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, ether, the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin USDC and various memecoins, with contributors hailing from 12 states, including a few battleground states.
Cryptocurrency billionaire twins and venture capitalists Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss led the charge, each contributing 15.57 bitcoins, or just over $1 million at the time of their donation, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission — though they received a partial refund because the contributions exceeded the $844,600 limit.
There are a number of other venture capitalists who are pro-cryptocurrency and have also pledged millions to the Trump campaign.
Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz told the employees Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) who plan to make large donations to political action committees supporting Trump’s campaign. Sequoia Capital partners are backing Trump, as is venture capitalist David Sackswho helped the former president raise $12 million at a fundraiser he hosted at his San Francisco home. The chief legal officers of the centralized cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and blockchain giant Ripple were both there.
These members of the tech elite also contribute heavily to pro-crypto super PACs like Fairshake, which has raised over $200 million to elect pro-crypto candidates up and down the ballot, and on both sides of the aisle.
But according to NBC News reports The vice president’s team is looking to rally support from some swing donors at big tech companies, many of whom have been sidelined while President Joe Biden has remained in the race. Their pitch could change now that the vice president is the party’s de facto nominee.
Fortunately, Harris has a long history in California.
She has been fundraising in the tech community for years, including from those who work at Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft And Apple.
“The turnaround that’s happened in the last three days is spectacular,” said Steve Westly, a venture capitalist and former California gubernatorial candidate. told NBC News“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an outpouring of enthusiasm in any campaign I’ve been involved in.”
It comes as Trump’s vice presidential running mate, JD Vance, is scheduled to hold his own fundraiser in Palo Alto on Monday.
—CNBC’s Rebecca Picciotto contributed to this report.