NASHVILLE, Tenn. — At Bitcoin 2024, Former President Donald Trump set forth an ambitious Bitcoin- and crypto-friendly agenda that energized the crowd while attacking his opponent, current Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for the crypto policies of the Biden Administration.
“I pledge to the Bitcoin community that the day I take the oath of office Joe Biden’s and Kamala Harris’s anti-crypto crusade will be over,” said Trump, now the first former American president to address an audience at a Bitcoin event anywhere in the world.
Trump made his landmark announcement in front of a packed conference hall that David Bailey, the conference organizer and CEO of Bitcoin Magazine, estimated held 8,000 attendees, with tens of thousands, maybe even over 100,000 more tuning in via livestream.
Trump made numerous additional promises, including establishing a presidential advisory council to design transparent regulatory guidelines in his first 100 days in office, and using the U.S. government’s current bitcoin stash to form a “strategic national bitcoin stockpile,” among others.
Reading from a teleprompter and occasionally digressing, he said, in a conclusion that seemed to take direct aim at the Biden Administration’s approach to crypto: “My promise to each and every one of you is this. I will be our pro-innovation and pro-bitcoin president that America needs and our citizens deserve. … Our nation has never thrived by trying to censor new ideas and shut down the dreams of our people. America always plants our flag on the next frontier and pushes boldly ahead.”
Feeding Off the Hostility Toward SEC Chair Gary Gensler
Trump’s promise to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler on his first day in office is the one pledge that generated the loudest applause during the former president’s speech.
“On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler and appoint a new SEC Chair,” Trump said, eliciting a thunderous applause and bringing the entire crowd to its feet.
“I didn’t know he was that unpopular! Wow,” he said, seemingly shocked. “I didn’t know he was that unpopular,” he repeated, stunned. “Let me say that again.” There were roars from the crowd.
“On Day 1, I will fire Gary Gensler,” he repeated. When the crowd stood and cheered raucously again, he said, “Whoa!”
Attendees broke into a chant.
“I will appoint a new SEC chairman who believes America should build the future, not block the future,” Trump said.
Read More: Trump Has Made Promises to Crypto Voters. If He’s Elected, What Could He Actually Do?
Pinning the Biden Administration’s Anti-Crypto Policies on Harris
Throughout his speech, Trump tried to turn the crowd against his likely opponent, Vice President Harris, by lumping her in with the Biden Administration’s hostile stance toward crypto.
Speaking of her, he said, “She’s against crypto, by the way, and she’s against it very big. It’s no surprise these totalitarians are hell-bent on killing crypto. We have the SEC, they’re obliterating bitcoin, because bitcoin stands for freedom, sovereignty, independence from government and coercion from control. The Biden and Harris Administration’s repression of Bitcoin and crypto is wrong and is quite un-American.”
Read More: Senator Tim Scott Goes All In on Bitcoin, Paving the Way for 2025 Crypto Legislation
Promises New and Overdue
Besides firing Gensler, Trump’s most consequential promises included taking ownership of the 210,000 bitcoin seized by the government. He pledged that the coins currently held would be used to set up a fund that would act as the nation’s strategic reserve.
Although there had been a rumor that he would direct the Federal Reserve to purchase one million bitcoin, in the speech following Trump’s, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R – Wyo.) unveiled just such a plan in a bill to be introduced to Congress.
Trump also vowed that he would put an end to what the crypto industry has been calling Operation Choke Point 2.0, which seems to have been an effort starting in late 2022 and early 2023 to either shut down banks that serviced crypto companies or to keep crypto companies from being able to bank at all. For example, Barney Frank, one of the co-authors of the Dodd-Frank Act, said that the closing of Signature Bank happened because, “regulators wanted to send a very strong anti-crypto message.”
Read more: Law Firm’s White Paper Points to US Regulators Waging Financial War Against Crypto
Trump promised to shut down Operation Choke Point 2.0, lamenting, “They want to choke you, they want to choke you out of business.”
He contrasted Operation Choke Point 2.0 with his own plan to establish a “Bitcoin and Crypto Presidential Advisory Council” to design transparent crypto regulation, saying, “We will have regulations, but from now on, the rules will be written by people who love your industry, not hate your industry.” He said the council will design “transparent regulatory guidance” in the first 100 days of Trump taking office, should he win.
More Promises to the Crypto Faithful
Other promises he made included ensuring the U.S. emerges as the bitcoin mining capital of the world, abolishing any plans of implementing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), establishing effective stablecoin legislation, and defending the right to self-custody.
“I’m laying out my plan to ensure that the U.S. will be the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin super power of the world,” Trump said.
The former president also doubled-down on his commitment to pardon Ross Ulbricht, who is currently serving a life sentence for creating and running the infamous dark web marketplace Silk Road which was shut down by the FBI in 2013 for facilitating the buying and selling of illegal drugs and other contraband.
Crypto Vote Coveted by Both Republicans and Democrats?
Trump’s speech at the Bitcoin conference comes on the same day that the Financial Times reported that Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign is seeking a “reset” with crypto companies. According to the FT, the Vice President’s campaign has reached out to crypto exchange Coinbase, stablecoin issuer Circle as well as cross-border payments company Ripple Labs, to send the message that the Democrats are “pro-business, responsible business,” as a person close to her campaign told the FT.
Also on Saturday, a group of 28 Democratic officials, candidates, and members of state legislatures, including known pro-crypto Democrats such as Ro Khanna, Ritchie Torres and Wylie Nickel, published a letter to Jaime Harrison, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, urging him and prospective presidential candidates to “take a forward-looking approach to digital asset and blockchain technology.”
Both moves occurring on the same day shows that crypto as a campaign issue has reached the highest levels of politics, with the Democrats scrambling to catch up after three and a half years of unfair treatment of the crypto industry by the SEC under Biden’s appointed chair, Gary Gensler.
Read More: Why Congressman Ro Khanna Is Hopeful the Democratic Party Will Embrace Crypto
The Bitcoin 2024 Conference had already drawn a huge crowd, but Trump’s appearance caused it to spill out beyond the venue. Nearby streets were packed with onlookers, including one family who drove four hours just to watch the motorcade go by, because this would be “as close to the President as we would ever get.”
However, not everyone waiting outside in the heat was a fan, with one woman watching the motorcade making an obscene gesture at Trump and someone standing outside the conference center with a sign saying, “Trump is the Anti-Christ.”
