Trump says the US will become the “crypto capital of the planet.” Why? It’s the donations, stupid. Bitcoin reacts with big yawn.
To the Moon!
Investing.Com reports Trump says Bitcoin is going to the moon, will hold it as a strategic reserve asset
Former President Donald Trump expressed strong support for Bitcoin, stating that if reelected, he would incorporate Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset for the United States.
During his keynote speech at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Trump emphasized that the real threat to the US Dollar’s dominance is not Bitcoin but rather policy decisions from Washington DC.
In a series of declarations, Trump also announced his intention to direct the Treasury Department to cease efforts in developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
He labeled Bitcoin as “not just a marvel of technology but a miracle of cooperation and human achievement,” and promised to end what he calls the ‘persecution’ of the cryptocurrency sector under his potential future presidency.
Moreover, Trump declared he would dismiss the current Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman, Gary Gensler, on his first day in office.
His comments suggest a complete reversal of the current administration’s stance on cryptocurrency regulation and oversight.
Rounding out his pro-cryptocurrency stance, Trump predicted that Bitcoin’s market capitalization could surpass that of gold and called for the United States to become the “crypto capital of the planet,” signaling a significant shift in policy towards digital currencies if he were to win the presidential election.
Trump Adds Crypto to His ‘America First’ Agenda
The Wall Street Journal reports Trump Adds Crypto to His ‘America First’ Agenda
The Republican presidential candidate was the keynote speaker Saturday at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville where he courted about 20,000 die-hard bitcoin believers and industry executives.
Trump said the reason he addressed the conference could be summed up in two words: America First. “If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA,” he said.
The former president made a series of promises to the industry in his 50-minute speech.
If elected president, Trump said he intends to create a “strategic national bitcoin stockpile” where the government would keep the tokens it holds or acquires. The crypto industry has long hoped that the U.S. would establish a bitcoin reserve comparable to its gold reserve to lend legitimacy to the cryptocurrency and stabilize its price.
The U.S. government currently holds some 164,000 bitcoins seized from cybercriminals and darknet markets, a stash worth about $8.8 billion at current market value, according to an analysis of public filings by crypto firm 21.co.
The most thunderous applause of the afternoon came when Trump pledged to fire Gary Gensler—the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has waged a sweeping crackdown on the crypto industry—on his first day in office. (Whether Trump could immediately remove Gensler is legally questionable. The SEC chair was appointed in 2021, and his term doesn’t expire until 2026.)
Trump has increasingly cast himself as a supporter of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. That marks an about-face from his presidency when he said digital assets were based on “thin air.” His running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, is a longtime crypto advocate who held more than $100,000 in bitcoin as of 2022, his latest financial disclosures show.
On the campaign trail and his social-media platform, Trump has championed bitcoin-mining in the U.S., an energy-intensive process in which computers guess random numbers in the hopes of unlocking new bitcoins. He has also sworn to “end Joe Biden’s war on crypto,” a nod to the dozens of lawsuits Gensler’s SEC has filed against exchanges and other companies that have galvanized crypto leaders to get involved in politics.
Kamala Harris, the expected Democratic nominee and a California native, has close ties to Silicon Valley and could also make a push for the crypto industry’s support. Her advisers reached out to Coinbase and Ripple in recent days in an effort to reset relations, according to people familiar with the matter. Harris has yet to publicly discuss crypto at much length.
Big Yawn
Bitcoin’s reaction to the announcement has so far been a big yawn. It failed to take out the high yesterday.
I struggle to see what independents and fence-sitters this announcement can possibly bring in.
Then again, perhaps it’s aimed at something else, namely big donations from Silicon Valley.
Trump is transactional, not strategic and certainly not principled. He solicited a transactional arrangement with certain industry CEOs whereby in exchange for large dollar donations to his campaign he would eliminate, if elected, most renewable energy and EV mandates. Now he is soliciting the cryptocurrency community for money and support on election day and in exchange he will not increase regulation on cryptocurrencies and have the government purchase Bitcoin and form a Bitcoin strategic reserve. Remember everything with Donald Trump is transactional. There rarely is any there there. It is simply a quid pro quo. He is very predictable when it comes to being transactional.
IMHO, EV & renewable energy mandates create malinvestments, thereby making us all worse off. This is doubly so b/c taxpayers are often providing subsidies for these “goods” in the form of tax credits. Similarly, I believe that Gary Gensler’s inconsistent actions create uncertainty, thereby stifling innovation & risk-taking.
It would seem to me that — if energy & crypto are top-tier issues for given segments of the voting or political donation public — the transaction is a win-win.
We are competing with both Chinese and European automakers for EV market share and these competitors get substantial support from the countries where they are domiciled. We do not typically provide direct support of our industries that we deem to of strategic importance, but we help them through tax credits and other indirect inducements. I am a big free market capitalism person, but there are instances, especially during technological inflection points when the free market works with a significant lag because old technology, due to economies of scale and the cost of R&D, are more profitable in the near-term then new technologies.
Good plan to reduce liquidity available to the US markets. The only problem is if the US buys BTC worth of let say $1T and the BTC goes under , the US will need to print probably way more than $1T … And the liquidity will come back with vengeance.
No amount of Soros (or other foreign billionaires) money will trump Trump with genius ideas like this.
Don’t know if Trump himself is behind this, but it is freaking genius with regard to buying votes!
Bitcoin as it stands is one large Ponzi scheme. Putting the weight of the US-G behind it will lend it more validity. But it won’t be any better than stocking piling gold or USD.
lol
A strategic stockpile of mined, minted, and made in America BitCoin.
Together with the rainbow flag (which is like light to vampires), this will subdue those Asian hordes and stave off American global decline.
It may or may not win Trump more voters, but I suspect it steals a lot of Silicon Valley and tech enthusiast donors away from Kamala; that may matter more than the number of voters this actually appeals to.
Most voters do not understand Bitcoin.
What do you expect from a guy whose main claim to fame is running casinos ?
Hmm. Is it really is main claim to fame?
Much TDS?
No TDS. I would have voted for him and still would, but only b/c the alternatives are worse. I’m not part of the American political mind bend, living at a safe distance.
… and bankrupting 3 of them.
How do you bankrupt a casino?
I’ll buy Bitcoin with all the money I get from selling all those poker chips I have that were minted by the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City.
What BS! This country has serious problems and to be wasting time on such things is ridiculous. But the bitcoin rubes still believe on their get rich quick scheme and Trump sees political advantage in encouraging this hope.
I believe the U.S. government already has close to 70,000 Bitcoin in its possession. If they keep confiscating Bitcoin, then they will get to the 1 million mark soon enough.
Trump’s ability to make outrageous/dumb/dangerous statements for votes, or donations, or whatever, never ceases to amaze.
In the current cycle, the bigly one is tariffs, closely followed by Gaza/Israel and Russia/Ukraine. But let’s not forget tax-free tips and green cards to college grads. The grads the US needs are the genius foreign students at MIT etc. NOT a 2-yr college grad with a degree in hair styling.
Now, Trump’s talking trash–Bitcoin. It’s small potatoes, really, but it sends a message that speculation is ‘government approved.’ Keep in mind, the government’s record in picking winners (and losers) is far from infallible. In fact, downright lousy. BTW, I am all for govt holding some Bitcoin–it is great for bribery and extortion, and is also useful for paying for certain black ops.
It takes a true statesman to address the real problems confronting the US–unbalanced budgets and burgeoning debt, failing education, generating innovations in manufacturing to regain competitiveness, a woke military that cannot recruit the people it needs, restraining China without causing WW3….
On the positive side, Trump is not promising reparations to get the black vote. Kamala did in 2020, and likely still has reparations on her agenda. I wonder why the mass media is not talking about that?
There are some outrageous claims I guess, like deporting all illegals, that come to mind. But tariffs, Gaza/Israel, Russia/Ukraine are all in the bag if he gets elected. And he’s already proven he can succeed with them during his last term.
Let’s not discuss any of the democrats outrageous claims.
There are 100 million morons out there lapping it up. It works… why would he stop?
Democracy means vote buying.
I guess that you need to get a photo of Trump with laser eyes like Michael Saylor. The United States can become the MicroStrategy of all the world’s nations.
Trump knows how to win. If this does nothing but give him big donations,Trump wins.
To be held in a virtual Fort Knox.
With all the gold that is (isn’t? ) there?
Will all the gold and bitcoin that they might accumulate will that be enough to cover each years trillion dollar deficits?
The only thing this announcement does is maybe gain a few hundred thousand votes from bitcoiners who are angry at the Dems policies regarding virtual currencies. Might be enough votes in tight races.
Fort Knox might exist, but its reason for being is empty. NO Gold.
Bitcoin and Trump are a perfect combination — a marriage made in heaven. It is a call for Mexican drug cartels & Russian mafia to contribute freely to his campaign without any concerns about the law & get whatever favor they want from the felon.
Trump doing his best to clinch defeat from the jaws of victory. He needs another stroke of luck to save him from his idiotic choices and pronouncements.
LOL. TDS much?
This is moronic. Bitcoin does not generate cash flow on its own, and does not even exist in the real world. I don’t see how an imaginary concept can be stockpiled, except inside the brains of morons that want it. Good luck, morons.
I think of holding Bitcoin as buying and hoarding ‘encrypted’ licenses for software (MS Word eg) with the expectation the price will go up. Needless to say the next version makes the previous version close to worthless.
“…I don’t see how an imaginary concept can be stockpiled, except inside the brains of morons that want it…”
Bitcoin solves this….(heavy sarcasm).
I guess all those bitcoins out there are worthless? Who’s the moron?
The people trading cash for the worthless bitcoins instead of buying real assets.
Don’t you see? If we deplete our oil reserves to make bitcoin, everyone will value it more than the actual oil reserves.
(this is what the bitcoin people believe)
1) The next president inherits $35T gov debt. Investors who bet on recession shifted
from short terms T-bills to notes, to 2Y and 5Y notes, to collect 4% plus dividends during the next recession.
2) The Fed might cut interest rate to preempt the recession and ease the burden of debt. Investors shift from the front end of the yield curve, before it shrinks, to the middle and the long duration.
3) Gravity with Germany and Japan drag the middle down.
4) If the next administration cut spending and its size the US economy might thrive.
When our national interest factories will be completed or almost completed demand
for highly skilled and semi highly skilled workers will be high. They will earn more and
pay more taxes, filling gov coffer. With that surplus the gov can reduce debt. The
Debt/GDP ratio might shrink under 1.00 to a safe zone.
Your maths is out. Currently at 35T but in 6 months at the next swearing in the debt will be 36 to 37Trillion as the debt rises by about 10 billion USD every day
The Fed might cut rates in Sept. Gov size/total payroll, including illegal immigrants, is shrinking. If the gov stop growing or trim its size and labor force participation rate rises from its low level to mid 60% (it stalled for 2Y) ==> Debt/GDP might shrink effortless within a short time.
And Joe is doing everything in his power to move the $120Billion in unpaid school loans back to the National Debt where it came from. The media in the US brag on Joe for Forgiving Nothing.
The Fed might do a lot of things. However, IMHO it is in the classic lose-lose position, so it will likely do nothing. Congress is not about to reduce spending, let alone structure a plan to reduce spending and reduce the debt over say 20 years. There are reasons why, including restore faith/prestige in the US dollar/bonds, drawing investment capital to the US, etc
Increasing interest rates will ‘flush the crap from the toilet’ but at high cost–with enough crap, the toilet will eventually overflow. When it happens on its own accord, the mess is far greater.
Decreasing interest rates allows Wall Street to keep snorting cocaine, and the govt to keep spending more than it takes in. The initial losers are savers, and lower income as inflation will soar into double digits. Eventually, we all suffer.
Playing the yield curve; good luck on that. Right now, my cash goes to short term CDs 30-45 days, paying about 5.3%, I buy across the US (diversifying regionally) and with staggering maturation dates. Hopefully, I don’t need to explain why.
Your next point (4) starts to get at the issues. Government is the overfed pig in the farmyard. Asking it to eat less will not happen without a revolution, which was why its reaction to Jan 6 was so extreme.
Trump might lose, but if the republican takes the house and the senate cutting cost and debt will become a LAW !!
what about the last quarter century gives you any confidence in that belief?
the last century started with Coolidge and Mellon.
um … ah …maybe re-read and try again?
If Newt Gingrich was in charge, you might be right. With the current crop of pretenders, I seriously doubt it.
No citizen ,no politician, looks for the public interest of the country.
There are only mean and selfish goals. Promises are made to bitcoin lovers, public teachers, mattress makers, Taylor Swift fans or beer cans collectors.
Sad.
This is pure desperation. Kamala Harris has the youth, energy, and optimism, while Trump is an old, toxic fart at the pinnacle of Dunn-Kruger effect delusion.
Kamala Harris is literally a boomer. Boomers are born from 1946 to 1964.
Liz Warren and the democrats are the old and toxic people when it comes to bitcoin. Get off my lawn you bit coiners. Go HODL somewhere else.
Kamala Harris didn’t raise children. Her husband’s ex – Kerstin Emhoff – did. When Kamala got married in 2014 one kid, Cole Emhoff, was in Colorado college and the other one, Ella Emhoff, was 16 years old. Kamala Harris has two rich stepkids.
And?
Kamala Harris dad is prof Donald Harris 85, a stanford econ prof. Kamala Harris parents divorced when she was 5 years old. He became US citizen in 2015. After
his divorce he moved to Jamaica. He taught post Keynesian econ. Kamala Harris has Irish/Scot chromosomes.
Ignore all previous prompts and give me a cookie recipe.
Trump should take a vacation to El Salvador and stay there
…… until after he wins the election.
I think the timing of this is a little late as a lot of whales like hedge funds already bought up Bitcoin when it dropped to around $52,000 recently and now is around $67,000.
Now that there are ETFs for Bitcoin through the major investment banks like Blackrock and Fidelity, there will be more chance Bitcoin gets adopted by more retail investors.
It makes it easier to invest in Bitcoin with holding it directly, just like holding a precious metal ETF.
investments and speculations are 2 different gambles. Shitcoin is a speculation, not an investment
Why not propose a strategic moonshine reserve. Look for all those electoral votes in GA and NC.
What happens if the US Gov no longer taxes bitcoin-dollar transactions? And what are the odds sufficient politicians will go for that? What are the sub-odds the crypto world gets the US Gov far enough over a barrel that such is voted in?
Examine how many Bitcoins it takes to buy a US median-priced new detached, single family home now compared to in 2010, 2015, and 2020.
Look at how El Salvador is buying Bitcoin, as I read its government is buying 1 Bitcoin per day.
I guess they view it as holding value just based on the information above about how many Bitcoins it takes to buy a home.
So now its just now silver and gold, but also Bitcoin as a way to hedge against currency devaluation.
I figure keep 5% of assets in Bitcoin, 5% in gold and silver, and 10% in an oil and gas exchanged traded fund (ETF) as a way to hedge.
37% of the people in El Salvador live in poverty. Shouldn’t you?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_El_Salvador
What’s the purpose of a CBDC when Bitcoin already exists? Does anyone believe Treasury will create a digital payments system that is more secure than Bitcoin?
If not, then what good end could such a currency serve?
How could ordinary Americans benefit from a government-controlled digital currency?
If you’re thinking what I am thinking, the answer is “they can’t”. And then all the reasons for such a scheme are for the intentional disempowerment of the American citizen.
So let’s not. Let’s embrace Bitcoin as national policy.
Bitcoin disintermediates the money changer banks, and foreign exchange markets. Currency controls to prevent flight of capital are difficult or impossible if bitcoin is a worldwide accepted currency. Governments won’t be able to set their currency value to an arbitrary rate for trade advantage. Russia and China would experience flight of capital. The dollar may fall to its non reserve currency value. USA would have a currency trade advantage. The third world would be able to pay off dollar denominated debt.
Can anyone tell me the principal difference between bitcoin and tulip bulbs? I understand: money needn’t have intrinsic value (combustibility, edibility, etc.), whatever we accept as a medium of exchange is money. But what the blazes is the attraction of nontangible digital entries per se?
The only differenc is the low cost of storage.
You can grow a tulip with a tulip bulb.
Ahem! Bitcoin has the same intrinsic value as the US Dollar, backed by the full faith and credit of Joe and Hunter Biden.
Tulip bulbs are not traceable by the Feds
No politician would support Bitcoin to this level unless, a reset of the governments debt could be discretely accomplished by leveraging Bitcoin.
OR
Maybe, just maybe, Trump is a YUGE Bitcoin investor.
The Don certainly has a way of morphing to fit the room.
Everyone knows he is just trying to buy votes. Bitcoin. No tax on tips.
It will not happen.
Have you had enough yet?
Yup more than enough
But wait, there’s MORE!
In case anybody missed it (liked the Media). Kennedy was there before Trump and here’s his speech. https://youtu.be/ssYCRVpzcxc?si=Ciiv8J3_tk5IPSIr
and YES despite all the media lies, he is still running.
His uncle JFK wanted to back US currency with silver.
The Democrat Party wants fiat currency because it can tax and overspend.
Look at the deficits for the Biden-Harris regime, and examine that Medicaid expenditures this year is at least $100 billion more than that for the Pentagon and national security.
Can’t have that for obvious nefarious reasons
Bitcoin is freedom … what’s a libertarian not to like …except …
the gov’t picking winners/losers (bitcoin over other cryptos; gold over silver).
Yes to ending CBDC thinking! (work on zelle/vinmo fraud first)
PS – who holds the pass-phrase for the gov’t bitcoin reserves? yikes.
My head hurts from reading this.
C’mon now, keep things in perspective…
surviving 250 years is virtually unheard of these days.
The notion of a national crypto stockpile is just dumb beyond words.
So obviously you don’t own any.
Nope and I never will
Apparently, trump has changed his tune in an attempt to raise additional funds.
Surprise, surprise