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Former President Donald Trump vowed to make the U.S. dominant in cryptocurrency, oust the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and create a national reserve of Bitcoin.<\/p>\n
During a speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference<\/a> in Nashville, he said under another Trump administration, the U.S. would become the \u201ccrypto capital\u201d of the world and a \u201cBitcoin superpower,\u201d where the token will be mined and minted.<\/p>\n \u201cI pledge to the Bitcoin community, the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden\u2019s and Kamala Harris\u2019s anti-crypto crusade will be over. It will end. It will be done,\u201d he said. \u201cThe moment I\u2019m sworn in, the persecution stops and the weaponization ends against your industry.\u201d<\/p>\n He also promised to fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler \u201con day one\u201d and appoint a new chairman, eliciting loud applause. \u201cI didn\u2019t know he was that unpopular,\u201d a surprised Trump said.<\/p>\n In addition, he said he will appoint a Bitcoin and crypto advisory council to design regulatory guidance, while also ordering the Treasury Department and other federal agencies to cease efforts toward development of a central bank digital currency.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will never be a CBDC while I\u2019m president of the United States,\u201d Trump said, adding that he will defend the right for self custody and create a framework for the expansion of stable coins, which will extend the dominance of US dollar. <\/p>\n And despite telling\u00a0Fox Business<\/a>\u00a0in 2021 that \u201cBitcoin, it just seems like a scam\u201d and is \u201canother currency competing against the dollar,\u201d he said Saturday that bitcoin isn\u2019t a threat to the dollar.<\/p>\n Trump also promised to keep 100% of all the Bitcoin that the federal government holds, which will serve as the core of a \u201cstrategic national Bitcoin stockpile.\u201d <\/p>\n His embrace of the crypto sector comes after dismissing it for years. In addition to his remarks in 2021, he said in 2019 that he\u2019s \u201cnot a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air.\u201d <\/p>\n President Joe Biden\u2019s exit from the presidential race raised hopes that a lighter regulatory regime would follow, under either a Republican or Democratic administration.<\/p>\n The price of bitcoin has come off its highs in March, when it topped $73,000. But after dipping below $60,000 earlier this month, bitcoin has surged about 17% in the past few weeks to edge closer to $70,000 again.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, advisers to Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019s campaign have been contacting key players in the crypto industry<\/a> to develop relationships that could eventually inform a regulatory framework while sending a message that Democrats are \u201cpro-business, responsible business,\u201d sources told the\u00a0Financial Times<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n The presidential election has emerged a major fault line\u00a0dividing Silicon Valley<\/a>, with\u00a0venture capital partners Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowtiz as well as the Winklevoss backing Trump. <\/p>\n On the other side,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0cofounder Reid Hoffman, former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, and SV Angel\u2019s\u00a0Ron Conway<\/a>\u00a0are among the other big-name techies that have publicly endorsed Harris.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n