Is the world prepared for a “crypto president”? Donald Trump has shown interest in this title but would he be the ideal choice? Kamala Harris, who originated from California and has close personal and professional links with Silicon Valley, might be a better option. Harris’s previous campaigns in California have seen strong financial backing and support from the region.
The question of a politician’s stance on bitcoin does not seem to be a dominant concern in campaigning, apart from a small group of tech enthusiasts and financiers. However, Forbes has described the cryptocurrency voting demographic as “increasingly crucial”. Yet, this viewpoint was expressed by a bitcoin consultant.
Trump’s claim to the ‘crypto-president’ title combines elements of the unheard of. He has garnered some enthusiasm in certain tech circles by announcing JD Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy and a supporter of cryptocurrency, as his probable vice-presidential partner. Trump is ready to win the votes of any fans of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or virtual currencies.
Recently, Trump has promoted himself on his social media platform, Truth Social, as the future defender of American cryptocurrency owners. In a post from June, however, he made an inappropriate statement about ensuring that the “remaining bitcoin [is] MADE IN THE USA!!!”. This showcases a clear misunderstanding of the nature of cryptocurrency, which is that it is not restricted by borders or any state control and can be produced and consumed everywhere.
Indeed, Trump’s disregard for the facts is a known factor. The cryptocurrency sector itself has not been without controversy, marked by infamous company failures, the detaining of crypto business people, and the noteworthy trial and conviction of Sam Bankman-Fried, operator of one of Silicon Valley’s largest crypto exchanges.
Do you recall the high interest in NFTs during the peak of the pandemic? By the culmination of the previous year, most of the transiently flourishing market was deemed worthless. Even the notorious Bored Ape NFT experienced a significant drop.
Vance has been encountering his own campaign hardships. Panels from older interviews and comments in which he fiercely criticised Trump, along with single, childless women who keep cats, have come to light. Vance was purportedly promoted as a candidate by the extreme right-wing tech tycoon and leader of PayPal, Peter Thiel, in conjunction with his political and tech associates. Thiel is also known for establishing the notorious mass surveillance corporations Palantir and Clearview.
It was Thiel, however, who confessed to the Atlantic near the end of last year that the Trump administration was “Far more chaotic than I had anticipated. It was riskier than I had expected. They failed to get the most fundamental aspects of the government functioning”.
Some months afterward, Thiel and his colleagues are of the belief that if Trump is seasoned with a smidgeon of anti-single woman crypto advocate, everything will shift. This is notwithstanding the Trump campaign’s consistent signalling that they would remain unswerving on the aspects that made it chaotic and dangerous during their initial reign.
The crypto corner is undoubtedly peculiar.
Last July, the UK Independent highlighted a headline that read: “Bitcoin value ascends after Trump assassination try”. The suggestion is that target the crypto soon-to-be president and your investment will flourish (rising nearly 10 percent). The reasoning by crypto enthusiasts was that the attempt enhances Trump’s chances of being elected, though the cause and effect is rather unsettling.
As a crowning point to this month’s crypto mania, Trump delivered a keynote address at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville previous week. This is the same Trump who referred to bitcoin in 2021 as being “a fraud against the dollar”.
The conference director expressed anticipation that the speech would be “globally recognised”. However, it’s likely the vast majority of voters would exhibit a Bored Ape countenance during a political address pertaining to virtual currencies. According to Forbes, Trump’s speech “confirmed his credentials” on bitcoin, with statements that were favourable to crypto. These were quite likely crafted by his campaign team, unlike his illogical social media updates proposing the relocation of all bitcoin minting to the US.
Just a few hours after Vance joined the ticket, my inbox was populated with an excessively enthusiastic press release from a cryptocurrency consultant and financier. Seemingly, the selection was lauded as a “masterstroke”. He argued that Vance would attract the youth vote thanks to his support for decentralized financial environments. This commentator also criticised Biden for “curtailing innovation” by implementing stringent regulations to reign in the excesses of the cryptocurrency market. And the significance of this argument is?
When Biden relinquished his candidacy, paving the way for Harris’s emergence, the Trump campaign’s cryptocurrency strategy was thrown into disarray.
Harris’s credentials in the tech sphere far outweigh those of either Trump or Vance – in other words, she genuinely has some, rather than simply pretending or scraping by. Age seems to have ceased to be the defining factor, apart from the fact that Harris ostensibly seems the most composed and mature of the lot. However, according to Politico, Harris doesn’t hold a particularly strong opinion on cryptocurrency, neither against nor in favour. The prospect of her becoming the so-called “crypto president” may not enthral her.
But is this really of concern in today’s turbulent society? The ambition to be identified as the “crypto president” likely ranks very low in a long list of presidential responsibilities.