If Donald Trump appears today as the great defender of bitcoin or the “cryptobro” par excellence, not so long ago, he was a fervent detractor of cryptocurrencies. The newspaper’s archives bear witness to these moments when the Republican did not hesitate to publicly criticize crypto assets. The turnaround in his positioning has been 180 degrees, since the president went from calling bitcoin a scam to proposing that the United States be the bitcoin capital of the world.
In 2021, a reporter asked Trump, “Don’t you like bitcoin?” Wouldn’t you invest in bitcoin? The response was forceful: “Bitcoin looks like a scam. I don’t like it because it’s another currency that competes with the dollar. I want the dollar to be the world currency,” he said during a phone interview with Fox.
His skepticism was also expressed on Twitter (now).
A few months ago, Mike Brock, an executive at Block, the payments company formerly called Square and founded by Jack Dorsey – also founder of Twitter -, mentioned that he had met in 2020 with Trump and his Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin . , and that The Republican wanted to “ban Bitcoin”. According to his version, Mnuchin convinced him not to do it. Although he stopped him in this attempt, this official, during his tenure in the administration, was also not a friend of cryptocurrencies and defended that bitcoin was just smoke, like the president at the time.
Trump’s previous term was not distinguished by any actions or measures related to cryptocurrencies. The digital asset ecosystem has continued to develop and regulation has focused on specific aspects. In the United States, there is no regulation that applies to the entire country as is the case in Europe, but regulations differ between states and different regulators approach the issue from different angles, even contradictory. Trump had the opportunity to address this issue, but chose to do nothing because he was a “crypto-skeptic” at the time.
It is true that a term has passed between the two, the sector has evolved a lot in a short time and digital assets, in general, have gained weight. Although it is unclear what prompted Trump’s change of heart, in part because he has spent a lot of time outside of the media space, certain events could have influenced it. Part of his entourage is “outlaw”. It is known that his son-in-law Jared Kushner promoted the debate on the role of cryptocurrencies in the administration. Meanwhile, the world is opening up to Bitcoin and El Salvador is the best example.
In 2022, already out of the White House, the president elected again I started having fun with the world of “cryptocurrencies”, starting with non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Trump released his own collection of NFTs, which he began selling for $99 per sticker. This meant approaching the “crypto” ecosystem via blockchain technology, which is the basis of cryptocurrencies.
Away from the spotlight, Trump has changed his views on Bitcoin, which became evident during his return to the presidential race. First of all, the Republican accepts cryptocurrency payments to finance his electoral campaign, receive donations in bitcoin, ether, solana, dogecoin or XRP.
From saying to doing
But that’s just a taste of the politician’s transformation into “cryptobro.” His electoral intentions regarding digital assets are categorical: to make the United States the world capital of bitcoin, to create a strategic reserve of bitcoins and, in general, to promote cryptocurrencies.
These proclamations in any case contrast with its official program, which very briefly refers to “crypto”. The Republican approach is literally to end the Democratic crackdown on cryptocurrencies, guarantee Americans’ right to mine bitcoin, and ensure they can keep cryptocurrencies in their private wallets. It remains to be seen which measures will remain promises and which will ultimately come to fruition.
While there is a way to move from talk to action, it appears that Trump has already started to wink at cryptocurrencies. His right-hand man during the electoral campaign, Elon Musk, is an ardent defender of “crypto” and both have already featured it. Tesla and SpaceX founder to lead new Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE, by its acronym in English). Doge is a cryptocurrency that the richest man in the world has always promoted and the office he will lead is precisely named after him.
But if Musk is the ambassador of Doge, Trump is the ambassador of Bitcoin. Of course, since a month ago, when he launched his World Liberty Financial (WLF) project and started selling the associated token. In reality, WLF is a “crypto-botch”, because it does not respect the basic principles of “cryptocurrency”, such as decentralization or elimination of intermediation. Additionally, the politician wants to promote crypto assets in the United States, but the cryptocurrency he sells, WLFI, can only be purchased outside of that country.
There are other contradictions in his role as a “cryptobroker” and in the project into which he puts his heart and soul: “We want to promote the dollar as a reserve without compromising the freedom of digital assets,” states the WLF white paper. . The dollar depends on the monetary policy of central banks, which directly contradicts any “crypto” approach. Trump is an advocate for cryptocurrencies, but there are gaps in his speech.
Government adoption?
In any case, it is true that If anyone can change the current state of the industry, it’s him. Experts hope his legislature will foster a gentler regulatory environment for cryptoassets. It is not insignificant that the main world power adopts cryptocurrencies, although it remains to be seen how this implementation will take place and to what extent it will be done. If the United States buys bitcoin, other countries could follow in its footsteps. Additionally, if Trump actually takes steps towards inclusion, he could move on to the next phase: government adoption.
This year saw a major milestone in the cryptocurrency market, the approval of the bitcoin spot ETF, which allowed financial institutions to offer their investors and trade bitcoin or ether. The nation’s regulator, the SEC, approved the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in January and did the same with the Ether fund in July.
This step was already a victory in the “cryptocurrency” market, because it signified institutional adoption. Now, if Trump promotes digital assets to the government, we could be In view of adoption by the government, starting with the United States and, perhaps, continuing to the rest of the world.
Either way, cryptocurrencies are overcoming obstacles and the fact that the president-elect is working on crypto-friendly regulations is paving the way for businesses to expand their businesses, individuals to adopt them and there is more of innovation.
Historic highs
This outlook has imbued the market with all-time highs. Bitcoin surpassed $92,000, and in just one week its revaluation was 35%. In fact, cryptocurrency was one of the most favored assets following the US election outcome.
