Trump’s Speech at Bitcoin Conference Will Mark a Pivotal Moment for Crypto

Former
U.S.
President
Donald
Trump
is

still
scheduled
to
speak,
in
person,
at
a

Bitcoin
conference
in
Nashville
later
this
month,
despite
injuries
he
sustained
from
a

failed
assassination
attempt
Saturday.
For
crypto,
this
is
huge.

Crypto
is
now
on
the
campaign
trail
in
an
official
capacity,
extending
beyond
throwaway
lines
to
appease
whichever
voting
demographic
and
fundraising
PAC
is
to
be
appeased
that
day.
The
shred
of
legitimacy
the
industry
has
been
begging
for
since
its
inception
has
arrived,
embodied
in
an
orange
man
at
a
conference
about
an
orange
coin.

I’m
no
political
strategist,
but
I
always
found
it
strange
when
presidential
candidates
spend
time
campaigning
in
states
they
have
no
risk
of
losing.
Trump,
or
any
Republican
candidate
for
that
matter,
is
not
going
to
lose
Tennessee
in
the
2024
presidential
election
(let’s
face
it,
folks:
Joe
Biden
is
no
Bill
Clinton).
And
yet,
Trump
is
stopping
by
a
Bitcoin
conference
in
the
Volunteer
State,
during
the
immensely
busy
campaign
season,
in
the
same
way
a
candidate
makes
stump
speeches
in
airplane
hangars
for
the
military
vote
and
in
front
of
factories
in
the
name
of
the
American
blue
collar,
with
Teamsters
in
tow,
for
the
union
vote.

Even
though
the
polls
and
data
suggest
that
most
people
don’t
use
or
own
crypto
—
7%
of
American
adults
used
or
held
crypto
in
2023
(according
to
the
Federal
Reserve),
28%
of
Republicans
hold
or
had
once
bought
crypto
(according
to
crypto
investment
firm
Paradigm),
52
million
Americans
own
it
(according
to
crypto
exchange
Coinbase)
—
it’s
still
part
of
Trump’s
reelection
strategy.
The
GOP
has
even
added
crypto
to

its
official
platform
marketing
materials
(in
the
unabridged,
pdf-downloadable
version)
under
the
“Champion
Innovation”
subpoint,
just
above
“Artificial
Intelligence”
and
“Expanding
Freedom,
Prosperity,
and
Safety
in
Space.”

Trump’s
appearance
in
Nashville
has
a
clear
message:
The
content
of
the
conference
is
more
important
than
the
location.
There
are
enough
single-issue
crypto
voters
out
there
to
make
a
difference
for
Trump.

(At
least,
enough
if
you
factor
in
prospective
donations
from
the
crypto
rich:
A
Trump

fundraiser
at
the
event
costs
more
than
$800,000
a
seat.)

The
Republicans
have
been
jostling
(against
…
no
one,
except
maybe
Independents
or
Libertarians)
to
be
viewed
as
the
pro-crypto
party
in
the
United
States.
One
example
is
the
preemptive

anti-CBDC
official
declarations
by
people
like
Florida
Gov.
Ron
DeSantis
(perhaps
to
appear
anti-China
and
pro-capitalism).
Another
is
the
voting
effort
in
the
House
of
Representatives
to
overturn
President
Biden’s
veto
of
a
pro-crypto
resolution
falling

neatly
on
party
lines
(save
one
Republican
dissenter
and
some
bipartisan
support
via
21
democrats).

To
me,
it
appears
that
in
this
election
cycle,
crypto
is
standing
in
as
a
feather
in
the
cap
for
the
individual
freedom
talking
point
GOP
voters
love,
to
the
point
where
Trump
has
completely
backtracked
on
his
anti-crypto
rhetoric.
In
2019
Trump
tweeted:
“I
am
not
a
fan
of
Bitcoin
and
other
Cryptocurrencies,
which
are
not
money,
and
whose
value
is
highly
volatile
and
based
on
thin
air.
Unregulated
Crypto
Assets
can
facilitate
unlawful
behavior,
including
drug
trade
and
other
illegal
activity….”
Then
in
2021
he
said

Bitcoin
is
a
scam
against
the
dollar”
during
a
Fox
Business
interview.

But
then
earlier
this
year
at
a
Mar-a-Lago
dinner
he
voiced
his
support,
saying
“…if
you’re
in
favor
of
crypto,
you
better
vote
for
Trump”.

Clearly,
there
are
votes
to
be
won
and
Trump
wants
them.

We’re
due
a
healthy
scoop
of
reality.
Say
there
are
50
million
crypto
holders,
as
Coinbase
suggests.
Are
they
all

really
single-issue
voters?

No.
Of
course
not.

In
an
interview
with
CoinDesk’s
Marc
Hochstein
last
year,
founder
of
crypto
research
firm
Messari
and
social
media

rabble-rouser
Ryan
Selkis,
who
has
declared
“‘war”
against
Chairman
Gary
Gensler’s
SEC
and

Sen.
Elizabeth
Warren’s
(D-Mass.)
anti-crypto
army,
tacitly
acknowledged
that
not
everyone
who
held
crypto
would
vote
for
the
pro-crypto
candidate.

But
you
don’t
even
need
that
to
win.

“Certain
states
are
only
won
or
lost
by
tens
of
thousands
of
votes.
So
you
don’t
need
to
have
50
million
people
become
single-issue
voters.
You
only
need
a
couple
hundred
thousand
in
the
right
areas,”
said
Selkis.

He’s
right.
I
submit
that
the
2024
U.S.
presidential
election
will
be
decided
by
something
like
100,000
votes
(not
the
popular
vote,
of
course,
I
mean
net
votes
in
the
battleground
states)
and
so
if
a
candidate
is
to
win,
he
needs
as
many
votes
as
he
can
get
in
the
high-stakes
areas.
And
because
President
Biden
appears
to
have
no
interest
in
dealing
with
or
courting
the
crypto
vote
(a
significant
misstep,
in
my
opinion,
as
appearing
pro-crypto
isn’t
enough
to
turn
people

off
a
candidate
so
long
as
the
positioning
is
correct),
every
single-issue
crypto
voter
is
likely
to
vote
for
Trump
and
try
to
influence
those
around
them
to
also
vote
for
Trump.

In
this
way,
it
makes
perfect
sense
that
the
GOP
believes
crypto
is
a
worthwhile
place
to
win
some
of
those
critical
votes.

What’s
more,
the
conference
is
a
spectacle
which
people
are
traveling
to
Tennessee
for.
Trump
won’t
be
speaking
to
Tennessee
voters,
he’ll
be
speaking
to
a
geographically
diverse
(dare
I
…
say
…
decentralized?)
cross-section
of
American
voters
(that
is,
if
you
can
get
Bitcoiners
to
vote
…).

It
simply
makes
too
much
sense.
Crypto
is
very
clearly
now
solidified
in
the
mainstream.
And
even
though
crypto
is
weird,
American
politics
has
been
weird
too.
And
the
weirdness
will
continue:
it’s
going
to
be
weird
having
Secret
Service
agents
scattered
about
the
Bitcoin
conference,
it’s
going
to
be
weird
that
mainstream
media
(and
not
just
their
financial
or
tech
reporters)
will
be
in
attendance
to
cover
the
proceedings,
and
it’s
going
to
be
weird
when
President
Trump
again
says
he
wants
all
the
remaining
Bitcoin
to
be

Made
in
America.

I
guess
that
when
the
going
gets
weird,
the
weird
turn
professional.

Note:
The
views
expressed
in
this
column
are
those
of
the
author
and
do
not
necessarily
reflect
those
of
CoinDesk,
Inc.
or
its
owners
and
affiliates.

UPDATE
(July
15,
2024,
17:02
UTC):
Adds
detail
about
fundraiser.