“On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler,” Trump said Saturday at the world’s largest bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Gensler, Biden’s appointed chairman of the federal securities regulator SEC, is a strong person in favor of regulation in the cryptocurrency market. The thousands of ‘bitcoiners’ in the audience enthusiastically shout ‘Trump!’ to chant after his promise.
It is unclear how much support there is for Trump outside the audience. After Trump’s speech to Congress, the price of Bitcoin temporarily fell.
About the Author
Frank Rensen is a science journalist and writes for from Volkskrant on technology, from cybersecurity and legislation to gaming and cryptocurrencies.
“This afternoon I will present my plan for the United States to become the world’s bitcoin superpower,” Trump began his speech. To do so, the United States needs to mine, mint and create bitcoins. “It won’t be made anywhere else,” Trump said.
Bitcoin mining, where computers solve arithmetic problems to earn bitcoins, is an energy-intensive process. Trump: ‘To dominate, you need enormous amounts of electricity, twice the total electricity we have now in the United States. We’re going to build power plants. We’re going to use fossil fuels to produce electricity.’
Trump also proposed establishing a presidential advisory council on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to stimulate the cryptocurrency market. “I promise the bitcoin community that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ anti-cryptocurrency crusade will end the day I am sworn in.”
Millions in donations from the crypto world
In his third presidential campaign, Trump is praising cryptocurrencies more than ever. He is now also accepting campaign donations in cryptocurrencies. But his enthusiasm was not always there. In 2019, tweeted He is not yet a “fan” of virtual currencies. He called their value “highly volatile” and argued that unregulated crypto assets could facilitate illegal behavior such as drug trafficking. ‘Bitcoin looks like a scam’ saying he said in 2019 during a telephone interview.
But his shift is not entirely inexplicable. Trump is receiving more support than ever from the tech and crypto industries. According to regulator OpenSecrets, crypto lobbyists jointly have such $121 million invested in the 2024 US presidential election, many times more than in previous elections.
David Bailey, the organizer of the bitcoin conference, pledged in June to raise more than $100 million in bitcoin for Trump’s campaign coffers. More major players in the tech sector recently came forward his support for the former president: US media have reported, for example, that tech billionaire Elon Musk donates $45 million a month to Trump. Musk himself denies this.
last vote
Trump’s speech at the bitcoin conference was not the only one of the weekend. A day earlier, Trump spoke at a rally of Turning Point, a radical right-wing Christian NGO. ‘Christians, go vote! Only this time you won’t have to do it again afterwards,’ he saidwhich seemed to imply that he wanted to abolish presidential elections after he had been elected himself. ‘I love you. In four years you won’t have to vote anymore. We’ll fix it so well that you won’t have to vote anymore.’
