Trump is back in the White House, will he make good on his pledges to crypto? (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
- Donald J. Trump has been confirmed as the 47th President of the U.S.
- Bitcoin is up over 7% as the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election results emerged overnight.
- The Republican party now has a Senate majority, meaning pro-crypto bills could have an easier path to approval.
Never before in U.S. political history has a former President pledged to make America the “crypto capital of the planet” until Trump made Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign trail.
Now that Trump is returning to the White House let’s examine his pledges to crypto and the chances of his following through.
Bitcoin’s President
Throughout this year, Trump has positioned himself as one of Bitcoin’s most vocal supporters through some rather significant and bold promises to the Bitcoin community.
Strategic Reserve
Firstly, Trump wants to integrate Bitcoin into the national financial strategy through a “strategic Bitcoin reserve.”
This could see BTC become a national reserve asset and would essentially see BTC put on par with gold.
Though Trump hasn’t provided a specific policy on how this would be enacted, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced a comprehensive Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill in August, which will be or serve as the foundation for this pledge.
In short, The BITCOIN Act proposes the U.S. government purchases 1 million BTC, or 5% of its total supply, over the course of five years.
That’s a maximum of 200,000 per year.
Notably, the U.S. government already holds over 200,000 BTC, and U.S. BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) already command 5.04% of BTC’s market cap, so it’s not an unrealistic goal.
Crypto Mining
Following a private June 2024 meeting with major players in the Bitcoin mining sector, such as Riot, Marathon Digital, and Terawulf, Trump then declared just hours after the closed-door meeting that he wants to see all BTC mined in the States.
“If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA,”
He echoed this sentiment on several other occasions, including at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville where he doubled down and said he also wants to see the U.S. take a dominant role in BTC mining, which could see him commit to increased support for energy independence and deregulation of the sector.
“We will be creating so much electricity that you’ll be saying, ‘Please, please, President, we don’t want any more electricity. We can’t stand it!”
Marathon Digital’s CEO, Fred Thiel, believes that Bitcoin mining dominance is a “national security concern.”
Trump seemingly agrees and has repeatedly warned that if the U.S. doesn’t get ahead on crypto and Bitcoin mining, then China, Russia, and others will take over.
Regulation or Deregulation?
Despite the U.S. being home to some of the biggest crypto industry players in the world and wildly successful gigantic Bitcoin ETFs, crypto regulations in the U.S. are bizarre, unclear, and difficult to understand. So what’s Trump’s approach?
Fire Gensler
Perhaps most famously, Trump promised to end the government’s regulation war on crypto. Speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville in July, Trump stated:
“I pledge to the Bitcoin community, the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden’s and Kamala Harris’s anti-crypto crusade will be over. It will end. It will be done,”
This includes a promise to fire U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, who has been notoriously litigious against the crypto industry.
“We will have regulations, but from now on, the rules will be written by people who love your industry, not hate your industry, people that want to make it clear and simple, straightforward and fair, people that want to see your industry thrive, not dive.”
This will also see the creation of a crypto-centric advisory council on cryptocurrency, which will presumably be comprised of major domestic industry stakeholders and players to help guide policy and regulations.
Anti-CBDC, Pro-Self Custody
Another cornerstone of Trump’s campaign is his staunch opposition to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), which he views as an outright attack on the privacy and sovereignty of U.S. citizens.
“It would be a dangerous threat to freedom, and I will prevent it from coming to America.”
Trump believes CBDCs give too much control to the government and has promised to never allow them to be created by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
In that same vein, Trump has said he will defend “the right to self-custody.” He doesn’t view Bitcoin as a threat to the dollar and instead believes in citizens’ right to financial privacy.
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