President Trump says additional tariffs on Chinese goods are coming September 1 despite touting "constructive" dialogue. | Source: REUTERS/Leah Millis
Donald Trump weighed in on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, predictably on Twitter, last week. It wasn’t very positive, to say the least. Trump said he’s “not a fan” of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Then he listed the typical objections people like Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini have made.
Trump also took a shot at Libra, Facebook’s disruptive digital currency project.
The crypto industry’s reaction was swift and mercilessly funny.
What about TrumpCoin?
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao poked fun at TrumpCoin.
https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1149512549856976897
TrumpCoin actually spiked after Donald Trump’s bitcoin tweet yesterday. It’s up 12% now. It actually has a market cap of 23 BTC. Which isn’t surprising. There’s a not small community of Trump supporters who are obsessed with gold and silver Trump commemorative coins.
Achievement Unlocked!
Coinbase Co-Founder and CEO Brian Armstrong takes this as a sign crypto is winning:
https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1149492705673695232
It sure is a qualitatively different situation now for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Before partisan hack pundits like Paul Krugman would laugh at bitcoin on the pages of the New York Times. Now the president is taking aim at the industry. Therefore it’s turned from being mocked into being taken seriously.
Fake News
TRON founder and BitTorrent CEO Justin Sun warned Donald Trump that he’s been misled by fake news. And he invited Donald Trump to his charity dinner with Warren Buffett, a brilliant move. He could get two bitcoin-hating billionaires in the room for a pitch from crypto industry leaders for the price of one ($4.5 million). Sun capped off the tweet with a deft appeal in Trump’s own language.
Bringing People Together
Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert was just glad to see at least someone, even Donald Trump, uniting the most hardcore bitcoin maximalists and the most shameless junk coin shills together. Moreover, even crypto bulls and gold bugs can unite in agreement over Trump’s bitcoin tweet saying Federal Reserve notes are the only real money in the USA. Trump did promise as president that he would bring people together.
Bullish
Circle Co-Founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire says Trump’s bitcoin tweet is a major bull signal. By taking bitcoin seriously enough to make a public statement condemning it, the president has elevated it to his level. He made the cryptocurrency industry a global issue. The president of the United States is concerned about it now.
Like Denying Gravity
The Winklevoss twins’ digital asset exchange and custody service, Gemini, tweeted a reply to the president with a quote from Tyler W. It refuted Trump’s claim that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are “based on thin air.” On the contrary, bitcoin derives its value from the largest deployment of public key strong encryption in history. A loosely affiliated network of 10,000 computer nodes all over the planet keeps your bitcoin secure.
