Donald Trump said he would end the “persecution” of the crypto industry, sack the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and free a convict the community views as a martyr.
In a direct pitch to cryptocurrency devotees at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday, the Republican candidate promised to end the Biden administration’s “crusade” against bitcoin.
“I pledge to the bitcoin community, that the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ anti-crypto crusade will be over,” said Trump.
“On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler,” Trump said to a massive roar from the roughly 5,000 people seated in the audience.
Crypto’s embrace of Trump comes against the backdrop of a difficult few years for the industry, which has faced an aggressive clampdown from the SEC. Crypto is “a field that has been rife with fraud and manipulation”, Gensler said earlier this year.
The SEC has pursued numerous crypto companies and executives, helping put FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao behind bars, and launched lawsuits against exchanges Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini, payments provider Ripple Labs and blockchain software company Consensys.
Trump on Saturday promised to end the “repression”, saying rules should be “written by people who love your industry, not by people who hate your industry”.
He also said he would instruct the Department of Treasury to abandon the creation of a central bank digital currency, and appoint a bitcoin and crypto advisory council.
The pitch was a dramatic reversal for Trump, who has previously claimed the value of cryptocurrencies was “based on thin air”, calling it “potentially a disaster waiting to happen.” He has described bitcoin as “a scam”.
But now both presidential candidates are courting the vote of ‘crypto bros’. Members of Kamala Harris’ campaign have met with people close to crypto companies in recent days in a bid to “reset” a relationship which soured during the Biden administration.
Trump, meanwhile, is the first major party candidate to accept donations in cryptocurrencies — and claimed on Saturday his campaign had raised $25mn in crypto donations. His running mate, JD Vance, at one point owned up to $250,000 in bitcoin in a Coinbase account, according to his 2022 financial disclosure form.
The support for Trump was obvious all over the conference centre. Trumpers in branded gear sporting “Make Money Great Again” slogans mixed with attendees in Satoshi T-shirts, orange cowboy hats, dresses and high heels. Trump spoke on “Nakamoto” stage,” in reference to Satoshi, the pseudonymous developer of bitcoin.
Some attendees wore T-shirts calling to free Ross Ulbricht, who was given a life sentence in 2015 for creating the online black market Silk Road, by voting for Trump. The GOP presidential nominee’s promise to commute his sentence caused the second biggest cheer of the speech, after the call to fire Gensler.
“They slander you as criminals but that happened to me, too, because I said the election was rigged,” said Trump.
Earlier at the conference, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, who has given pro-Trump Pacs over $1.4mn this election cycle and will host a fundraiser for the ex-president next month, announced an initial $2bn lending program financing bitcoin. He added that his firm owns a “shitload of bitcoin”.
Some attendees said that Trump’s presence alone could flip their vote, hoping that they will have for the first time an ally in the White House.
Investor and attendee Nick Smith said he did not vote for Trump in 2020 but would choose him today over Harris.
“I think they like his F-U attitude towards the establishment,” said Smith of Trump fans.
The price of bitcoin has jumped 10 per cent to over $68,000 since Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13. “I’m plugging for bitcoin to go over 70 — and even higher when the president speaks,” said David McIntosh, President of the Club for Growth, who is a Trump ally.
“Trump is a businessman and an entrepreneur — and he sees the opportunity that bitcoin affords the US and himself,” conference chief of staff Brandon Green said. “Over the past four years, you’ve seen a very hostile [Biden-Harris] administration towards the industry.”
“Bitcoin is on the ballot,” Green later said on stage.
At the conference on Friday, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr promised to direct the US Treasury to buy 4mn bitcoins, make transactions between the digital currency and the dollar “unreportable” and “nontaxable.”
Among the guest speakers was Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked a tremendous amount of information about US government surveillance. He told the crowd: “Cast a vote, but don’t join a cult.”
North Carolina Democratic lawmaker Wiley Nickel called for Harris to lead a party “reset” on crypto. Nickel, Ro Khanna and other Democrats in Congress sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee on Saturday calling for the next administration to “select a pro-innovation SEC chair”. He got a smattering of applause — but then was shouted down when he read on stage past Trump tweets critical of cryptocurrencies.
“I want to say this as politely and respectfully as I can. Donald Trump was president for four years. He did nothing on this issue,” said Nickel. “Right now, I can tell you: He is totally full of shit.”
Additional reporting by Nikou Asgari