At one of the year’s largest cryptocurrency events, Donald Trump vowed to dismiss the chairperson of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on his first day back in office if re-elected. Speaking as the keynote speaker at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump took the opportunity to appeal to voters and seek campaign donations from the tech sector.
Trump framed cryptocurrency as a key issue in the Republican political arena, accusing the Democratic Party and Vice-President Kamala Harris of being “against crypto.” The crowd erupted with enthusiasm when Trump announced, “on day one I will fire Gary Gensler,” referring to the SEC chair appointed by current President Joe Biden. The audience responded with loud cheers and chants of “Trump” following his statement.
Gary Gensler, who has spearheaded a crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry, has previously described the sector as being full of “hucksters.” Under his leadership, the SEC charged Sam Bankman-Fried, known as the “King of Crypto,” who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding customers of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
During his 45-minute speech, Trump shared his vision for the crypto sector if he were to win the November election. He promised to transform the US into the cryptocurrency capital of the world. This marks a significant shift from his 2021 remarks, where he had called Bitcoin a “scam” that undermines the US dollar.
Trump also told the audience that he would retain all Bitcoin held or acquired by the US government, proposing the creation of a “national Bitcoin stockpile.” Additionally, he vowed to “immediately appoint a Bitcoin and crypto presidential advisory council.”
Trump discussed the substantial energy required for cryptocurrency mining, stating, “You need tremendous amounts of electricity.” He proposed building power plants “to get that done” and indicated that he would rely on “using fossil fuels” for this purpose.
In recent months, Trump has garnered increasing support from some tech leaders. Tesla founder Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has endorsed Trump, and crypto moguls like the Winklevoss twins, who attended Saturday’s speech, have also shown their support.
Trump highlighted that his campaign accepts cryptocurrency donations, revealing that in the two months since he began accepting crypto transactions, he had received $25 million (£20 million) in donations. However, he did not specify the proportion of these donations made in cryptocurrency. During his speech, Trump framed cryptocurrency regulation as a partisan issue, criticizing the Biden administration as “anti-crypto.”
Several Republican lawmakers attended the event, including Senators Tim Scott and Tommy Tuberville, and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a Trump ally. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Democratic lawmakers Wiley Nickel and Ro Khanna also spoke at Bitcoin 2024. Earlier at the event, Democratic congressman Nickel praised Kamala Harris for her “forward-looking approach to digital assets and blockchain technology.”
(With inputs from online sources)
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