LAS VEGAS, Nevada – Vice President JD Vance forcefully endorsed cryptocurrency in a Wednesday speech, calling the bitcoin industry a “movement” and pledging the Trump administration will boost digital assets instead of weaponizing federal regulations against them.
“I’m here today to say loud and clear: With President Trump, crypto finally has a champion and an ally in the White House,” Vance told the Bitcoin 2025 Conference.
Vance’s speech praised cryptocurrency advocates for mobilizing behind Trump during last year’s election, as well as congressional candidates — including now-U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Westlake Republican.
The largest outside spender in Moreno’s successful bid to unseat former Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown was a pro-crypto super PAC called Defend American Jobs, which launched a nearly $41 million ad campaign on Moreno’s behalf. The industry even staged a free rock concert before the election featuring The Black Keys in their hometown of Akron.
Vance urged them to remain politically engaged.
“Take the momentum of your political involvement in 2024 and carry it forward to 2026 and beyond,” the Cincinnati Republican advised. “Don’t ignore politics, because I guarantee you, my friends, politics is not going to ignore this community, not now and not in the future.
Vance criticized the Biden administration’s approach to cryptocurrency regulation, describing it as “death by 1,000 enforcement actions,” and said Trump fired former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, whom he accused of “attacking every single effort to democratize our financial markets” under the pretense of consumer protection.
Vance told the conference he owns “a fair amount” of bitcoin himself, having disclosed assets valued between $250,000 and $500,000. While Trump himself was once a skeptic of cryptocurrency, he launched a $Trump memecoin earlier this year, and Trump’s social media company on Tuesday announced plans to raise $2.5 billion so it can purchase bitcoin.
Democrats describe Trump’s cryptocurrency involvement as one of many financial conflicts of interest posed by his presidency, with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, calling his company’s plans to sell a new stablecoin “grift.” Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrencies are not backed by governments, banks or other institutions. Their ownership is tracked through decentralized computer networks based on blockchain technology. There are thousands of different types of cryptocurrency, and their values can fluctuate dramatically. Hackers have stolen billions of dollars worth of the digital funds.
Vance described crypto as a “genuine ground-up innovation” that’s already improving “the well-being of tens of millions of our fellow citizens.”
He called crypto a hedge against bad policy making in Washington, a hedge against skyrocketing inflation, and “a hedge against the private sector that’s increasingly willing to discriminate against consumers on the basis of their basic beliefs, including their politics,” citing people who were “debanked” for “their second amendment advocacy or ties to the first Trump administration.”
Vance urged passage of bipartisan legislation called the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which he said would vastly expand the use of stablecoins as a digital payment system, protect coin holders and inject further transparency into the market.
“In this administration, we do not think that stable coins threaten the integrity of the United States dollar,” said Vance. “Quite the opposite.”
Backers say the bill would set up a federal framework to regulate payment stablecoins and establish federal safeguards that protect stablecoin holders and enhance consumer confidence in their use. Warren describes its safeguards as inadequate and said it fails to address “Trump’s blatant crypto corruption.”
Vance warned that without regulatory clarity, the United States risks chasing a $3 trillion industry offshore in search of clear jurisdiction. He said Trump would fight to ensure that doesn’t happen.
“We want our fellow Americans to know that crypto and digital assets, and particularly bitcoin, are part of the mainstream economy and are here to stay,” Vance said to cheers from the group.