With major financial institutions and corporations rallying around digital assets, the talk has seeped into the halls of government. Given cryptocurrencies’ remarkable benefits in transforming finance and promoting economic development, the United States must sooner or later come around to supporting cryptocurrencies with more certainty and precision. However, one ex-President has repackaged himself as ”pro-crypto” in the last few years.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump touted himself as a proponent for cryptocurrency and took a blow at Democrats’ unsuccessful attempt to oversee the sector during a high-dollar fundraising dinner in San Francisco on June 8, 2024. Trump hauled in $12 million from the pledge campaign hosted by hosts of the All In podcast David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya at Sack’s Pacific Heights estate.
David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Magazine and cryptocurrency advisor to the Trump campaign, declared that Trump will participate in an upcoming Bitcoin mining event dubbed “Presidential Roundtable on domestic Bitcoin mining.” Bailey did not disclose which corporations or individual miners were interested in attending but mentioned that recognized industry leaders would participate.
Background
This news comes at a backdrop of a recent shift in Trump’s stance on crypto and its regulation during a non-fungible token (NFT) gala in Florida on May 8. Trump revealed his campaign would accept cryptocurrency donations and urged his supporters to vote for him if they supported cryptocurrency as a valid currency. He further went on to attack President Joe Biden’s comprehension of crypto. He pledged to sculpt the future of crypto in the US rather than driving crypto companies abroad. He even queried about employing bitcoin to solve the “$35 trillion US national debt problem.”
However, Trump’s love for crypto has not always been this deep. During his long run for the presidency and while he served his term, Trump was always something of a crypto-skeptic. His tweet in July 2019, “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” has taken a huge turn now.
Further, Trump voiced concern over the use of cryptocurrencies in alleged criminal activities, including drug trafficking and money laundering. His administration likewise took a wary perspective on digital currencies and required tough regulation to protect against abuse and minimize downtime on client security.
Is Trump really crypto-forward? A look at Trump coins
In June, it was reported that Trump had approximately $21 million invested in cryptocurrency. Trump started getting involved with cryptocurrency in 2022. An NFT project capitalized on this by advertising and selling 45,000 Trump Digital Trading Cards NFTs for $99 apiece, which in turn helped Trump earn ETH royalties. They also released Trump NFTs in a special edition, which meant a fatter royalty cheque for Trump.
Through these exploits, the ex-president generated over 1,900 ETH, most of which was sold off last month, with 1,075 ETH offloaded in December 2023. The first of its breed, the MAGA Coin, was awarded Trump tokens. The MAGA Trump (currently valued at $13.21) project started in August 2023, and when it appeared in trading, Trump received a large number of tokens.
While Trump-themed cryptocurrencies, including MAGA and MAGA VP coins, have arrived as niche digital assets lauding former President Donald Trump and his political movement, the popularity of these digital assets, whatever their broader political value, remains under the spotlight. Both the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) coin and its counterpart, the MAGA VP coin, are aimed at Trump’s Trump fanbase, mixing political fervor and the use of cryptocurrencies.
These tokens are usually intended to raise money for political campaigns, to buy associated merchandise, or as a form of online memorabilia. With this data, the question is only – are Trump or either Presidential contender willing to lose the support of 53 million? Whoever wins the next US Presidential election, the United States, the world-leading superpower, will be making a significant future decision in adopting cryptocurrency, that is for sure.
Apart from simply being a speculative asset, cryptocurrencies also promise solutions for various public-sector policy goals. Among the potential ways forward are remittances using cryptocurrencies, an area where the efficiency and lower transaction costs of many cryptocurrencies might well bring revolutionary changes to cross-border payments, benefiting individuals and the broader economy in turn. Cryptocurrency has shown some promise with the United States Securities Exchange Commission, but there is still a long way to go before any meaningful transformation of the financial system can be achieved.
