News
Trump says “all” Bitcoin mining should happen in the US in his latest embrace of cryptocurrencies
Top line
Presumptive 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump said Wednesday he wants all remaining bitcoin mined in the United States, weaponizing the cryptocurrency as a new line of attack against President Joe Biden as the former president further embraces the digital sector after years of skepticism.
Trump has increasingly embraced cryptocurrency in the run-up to the 2024 general election.
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Main aspects
“We want all remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!!,” Trump said late at night send to his social media platform Truth Social.
Trump warned that bitcoin, obtained through a computational process known as mining, “may be our last line of defense against” a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The former president has already done it he railed against the idea of a so-called “digital dollar” issued by the Federal Reserve – which the central bank has explored but has expressed no position on – calling it a “dangerous threat to freedom” and promising to block its creation if reinstated. elected.
Mining the remaining bitcoins in the United States will also help the country become “energy dominant,” Trump said in block capitals, although it is unclear what the former president meant by this, given that mining bitcoin consumes, rather than produces, significant amounts of energy.
Trump also targeted Biden, whose administration and his Democratic supporters are widely viewed AS sceptical OR Also hostile to the cryptocurrency sector.
He said Biden’s “hatred of Bitcoin” only serves to help US enemies such as China and Russia, as well as the “radical communist left.”
What we don’t know
The reasoning behind several key claims in Trump’s post — namely that bitcoin will defend a central digital currency, that mining will help the United States become “energy dominant,” and that embracing bitcoin will help the United States against its internal and foreign enemies – it is not clear. It’s unclear how cryptocurrency adoption might dissuade the Fed from establishing a digital U.S. currency, and it’s possible that widespread cryptocurrency adoption in the United States might even encourage it to act more quickly on the issue. By energy dominance, it is possible that Trump is not referring to the energy consumed when mining the cryptocurrency, but to the regulations in place that govern where that energy comes from. Bitcoin mining is notoriously energy intensive and has been valued it will account for up to 2.3% of national electricity consumption in 2023. Its heavy environmental footprint has come under intense scrutiny in recent years. Biden’s proposed 2025 budget suggested how to do this to mitigate the environmental impact of mining, such as a 30% tax on miners’ total energy costs. This would be in line with his other criticisms of Biden’s environmental policies. Trump’s national security angle is harder to parse, especially considering that of Bitcoin Well documented potential to facilitate illicit activities, terrorism and sanctions dodging. It is possible that Trump is raising speculation privacy concerns surrounding a central bank issuing its own assets in an industry renowned for its anonymity and privacy.
News Peg
trump reportedly met with bitcoin miners at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. The meeting, which included leaders of bitcoin mining firm CleanSpark Inc. and Riot Platforms, is his latest overture to the cryptocurrency industry — and the tech sector as a whole — as he strives to establish the cryptocurrency as a dividing line between him and his rival Biden as they vie for a second term in the White House. He told attendees that he loves and understands cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg reported, citing CleanSpark President Matthew Schultz. Schultz told Bloomberg that Trump promised to be a supporter of bitcoin miners at the White House during the meeting and said miners could help stabilize the supply of energy from the grid.
Key background
Trump was famously skeptical of the cryptocurrency industry when he was president. In 2019, he She said he was “not a fan” of cryptocurrencies. He She said assets like bitcoin “are not money,” highly volatile and “based on nothing,” criticizing their potential to facilitate “illegal behavior” like drug trafficking and even proposed regulations require companies to collect information on the identity of crypto wallet holders. He has done so ever since reversed courserevealing millions of digital assets, accept donations for cryptocurrency campaigns AND flogging its “digital trading cards”.
Tangent
The supply of bitcoin is limited by design to 21 million bitcoins, most of which (about 90%) have already been mined. The process of mining a single bitcoin becomes increasingly energy-intensive as we approach that upper limit, with the reward for successful mining operations halving at pre-established intervals. Assuming a constant halving rate of once every four years, as has happened in the past, bitcoin is expected to be minted until around 2140. Estimates indicate the United States is already a leader in bitcoin mining, accounting for between 35 and 40% of overall production. Data indicates that other leading mining countries include China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Canada and Germany, although the computational nature of bitcoin mining can make it difficult to determine precisely where the currency is mined.
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