Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the stage after speaking at a campaign rally at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 20, 2024.
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NASHVILLE — Former President Donald Trump is the biggest headline bitcoin conference of the year on Saturday afternoon, as the race for votes and campaign dollars by America’s frontline fintech companies takes center stage in the 2024 presidential election.
The Republican presidential candidate will also hold an accompanying fundraiser in Nashville, with ticket prices up to $844,600. In June, CEO of BTC Inc. David BaileyThe conference organizers pledged to raise $100 million and attract more than 5,000,000 voters to the polls for Trump’s re-election effort, as the bitcoin sector increasingly moves in Trump’s favor.
Trump taking the stage to address the bitcoin community directly is the latest move in a months-long campaign to woo the cryptocurrency community, including accept donations in virtual tokensPresident Joe Biden Pledges to End ‘War on Crypto’ and Supports It All future bitcoin will be done in the US. This is also a complete change for the Republican presidential candidate.
Trump was very publicly rejected. bitcoin when he was in the White House. July 2019He said he was “not a fan” of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He said tokens were not money, that their value was “based on nothing,” and warned that unregulated crypto assets could help facilitate drug trafficking, among “other illegal activities.”
“Bitcoin seems like a scam,” he told Fox in a phone interview in 2021. “I don’t like it because it’s another currency that competes with the dollar.”
“I want the dollar to be the world currency, that’s what I’ve always said,” Trump continued in his conversation with Fox.
But five years, one failed presidential election, and millions of dollars from the crypto lobby later, the Republican presidential candidate is now the frontrunner. biggest bitcoin conference of the year in Nashville, which opens Thursday.
Trump’s change of heart on Bitcoin comes as Republicans pledge to clear the Biden-Harris administration of red tape, attempting to make cryptocurrency regulation a ballot issue in November, especially as inflation consistently ranks as a top priority for voters in polls.
As crypto lobbyists and advocates become more present in Washington, the question is whether Democrats will dig in to the hard-line regulatory approach of years past or loosen their stance.
“Every presidential candidate needs to understand that digital assets, the pro-innovation constituency, is here to stay,” Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel of North Carolina told CNBC in an interview, adding that cryptocurrency regulation should not become a “partisan political football.”
“I want to keep this a bipartisan issue. I don’t want Donald Trump to politicize this issue,” Rep. Nickel said.
Bitcoin 2024 Conference Organizers said they briefly discussed having Vice President Kamala Harris appear at the conference, though she ultimately declined. But billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban posted on X that Harris’ campaign had reached out about cryptocurrency, so it seems the vice president is looking into the space and potentially figuring out where her policies might go if she were elected president.
“I think we’ll hear from Vice President Harris very soon about this. And I’m very optimistic that we’ll get a reset. And I think that’s going to be significant,” Rep. Nickel said. “This issue is not going away. And we have to make sure that we continue to address this in a bipartisan way.”
Harris’ team has begun reaching out to people close to crypto companies to arrange meetings, Financial Times reported on Saturday.
Trump’s 180-Degree Turn on Bitcoin
Trump’s recent thaw in his stance on the digital asset space has coincided with a sudden influx of interest and money from the country’s top tech talent.
He raised more than $4 million in various cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ether, the USDC stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, and various memecoins, with contributors coming from 12 states, including several battleground states.
Cryptocurrency billionaire twins and venture capitalists Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss led the charge, each contributing 15.57 bitcoin, worth more than $1 million at the time of the donation, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission — though they received partial refunds because the contribution exceeded the $844,600 limit.
There are a number of other venture capitalists backing cryptocurrencies, and they have also pledged millions of dollars to Trump’s campaign.
Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz tell the staff Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) said it plans to make significant donations to political action committees supporting the Trump campaign. Sequoia Capital partners are backing Trump, as is venture capitalist David Sackswho helped the former president raise $12 million at a fundraiser he hosted at his San Francisco home. The chief legal officers of the centralized cryptocurrency exchange Cryptocurrency and blockchain giant Ripple both are there.
These tech elite members also contribute heavily to pro-crypto super PACs like Fairshake, which has raised over $200 million to elect pro-crypto candidates at every level of the ballot and in both parties.
But reports from NBC News The vice president’s team is looking to win over some undecided big tech donors, many of whom have stayed on the sidelines while President Joe Biden remains in the race. Their tune may be changing now that the vice president is the party’s de facto nominee.
The good news is that Harris has a long record in California.
She has been fundraising in the tech community for years, including working at Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft And Apple.
“The change that has taken place in the last three days has been incredible,” said Steve Westly, a venture capitalist and former California gubernatorial candidate. told NBC News. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such enthusiasm in any campaign I’ve been involved in.”
The incident comes as Trump’s vice presidential nominee, JD Vance, prepares to hold his own fundraiser in Palo Alto on Monday.
