In a speech in New York on Thursday, the former president repeated statements he has made before about cryptocurrencies but provided no additional details.
Among the crypto policies Trump has proposed in the past is the creation of a strategic reserve of bitcoins.
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Posted on September 5, 2024 at 1:34 p.m. EST.
Former President Donald Trump reiterated his stance that he hopes to make the United States “the crypto and bitcoin capital of the world” in a speech on his economic policy Thursday, though he did not provide further details or even mention crypto again in his hour-long remarks.
“Instead of attacking the industries of the future, we will embrace them, including making America the cryptocurrency and bitcoin capital of the world,” Trump said in his speech to the Economic Club of New York. He prefaced his remarks by saying he would dramatically reduce regulation in several industries, pledging to eliminate 10 regulations for every new regulation enacted.
Ron Hammond, director of government regulation at the Blockchain Association, a trade group, said he was encouraged that Trump mentioned crypto in his speech.
“The fact that cryptocurrencies are being highlighted shows that they are relevant,” Hammond said. “Even if it’s not a major issue in the top five or 10, it’s probably a major issue in the top 20.”
Hammond added that he does not expect the Trump campaign to issue any further specific policy recommendations on crypto before the election, unless they are in response to new congressional activity or actions by the SEC.
Moe Vela, a senior advisor to Unicoin and a former adviser to Joe Biden when he was vice president, said he also doesn’t expect to see more specific policies from Trump before the election. But Vela said Trump’s vague and blustering comments are dangerous for the industry. “We’re already seeing what the lack of regulation is doing,” Vela said. “We have people (in the cryptocurrency industry) in jail because of it.”
Rather than discussing cryptocurrencies, Trump focused on international economic competition, particularly with China, border security and the impact of illegal immigration on American jobs, and the importance of energy independence. While Trump did not explicitly link energy independence to cryptocurrencies, he did say that strong energy policies were essential to advancing American innovation, particularly AI.
Trump’s Past Positions on Cryptocurrency
Trump has defined himself as the pro-crypto candidate in the 2024 presidential election, placing himself in opposition to the Biden-Harris administration, which has been widely perceived in the industry as unfairly tough on crypto. This follows Trump’s previous skeptical statements several years ago, when he said cryptocurrencies were “highly volatile and based on thin air“and seemed”like a scam.”
Read more: At Bitcoin Conference, Trump Promises to Fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler If He Wins
Among Trump’s recently proposed crypto policies is the creation of a strategic bitcoin reservewhich would initially consist of the 210,000 existing bitcoins already available to the US government thanks to the seizure of assets belonging to cybercriminals. also promised to end what crypto industry critics have dubbed “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” an alleged plan by the Biden administration to block crypto firms from using U.S. banks, and that if elected, he would establish a “Presidential Advisory Council on Bitcoin and Crypto” to design transparent regulation of cryptocurrencies, a development frequently sought by the industry. He also said he wants the United States to be the world leader in bitcoin mining and to make the United States the “cryptocurrency capital of the world.”
Read more: How to invest in cryptocurrencies depending on whether Trump or Harris becomes president
With his support, Trump’s three sons are running a project called World Liberty Financial, a DeFi project that would offer high-yield investment opportunities, according to to the website metadata. The project, however, was extremely poor in detail. World Liberty Financial messages on X say the organization hopes will promote “mass adoption of stablecoins and decentralized finance” and help strengthen the U.S. dollar against attacks from foreign nation states.
Contrast with the Biden/Harris administration
In contrast, Biden-appointed SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has taken numerous regulatory actions against major crypto companies, including Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken, and is widely viewed as anti-crypto. Trump vowed to “fire” Gary Gensler on day one if elected chairman at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville in July, a statement that was met with thunderous applause.
Biden also vetoed a House proposal to eliminate SAB 121, an SEC accounting rule that imposed strict requirements on cryptocurrency custodians that the industry strongly opposed. Harris, meanwhile, has so far remained silent on what her cryptocurrency policies would be. Democratic cryptocurrency advocates had hoped her administration would bring a “reset“hostile policies of the Biden administration, and a campaign aide said At the recent Democratic National Convention, Harris said she would support the growth of digital assets. However, Harris did not mention crypto at all during her speeches at the convention, and her most definitive comments were simply that she would support “emerging technologies.”
UPDATE (September 5, 2024, 2:59 p.m. ET): Updated with comments from Ron Hammond and Moe Vela, plus additional details on Trump’s speech.
