Nashville
CNN
—
For a while, Donald Trump would have been an unlikely headliner at a cryptocurrency conference.
As president, Trump has said bitcoin is “not money” and criticized it as “highly volatile and based on nothing.” He has warned that cryptoassets help facilitate illegal underground markets.
“We have only one true currency in the United States, and it is stronger than ever,” Trump wrote on Twitter in 2019. “It’s called the American dollar!”
But on Saturday, Trump will address the cryptocurrency industry’s largest annual gathering here in Nashville not as a cynic but as one of its most prominent supporters — the culmination of a complete about-face on the issue during the former president’s last run for the White House.
Despite cryptocurrencies’ troubling recent history and his own past reservations, Trump has fully embraced the hype and hopes of the nascent industry. His campaign is now accepting bitcoin donations — and has raised about $4 million, according to a source familiar with his fundraising. He has called the Biden administration’s efforts to regulate the industry a “war on crypto” without acknowledging the massive frauds that have shattered public trust in digital currencies. And he has pledged, as president, to make it easier for cryptocurrency mining companies to operate in the United States.
“Otherwise, other countries are going to get it,” Trump said earlier this month in Wisconsin.
The industry, in turn, has embraced Trump. Its executives and investors have donated millions of dollars to his campaign and political committees. They are promoting his candidacy to their vast online audiences and are now giving him a platform to speak directly to the 20,000 of their most engaged followers expected at this year’s Bitcoin conference.
“A lot of these people see themselves as single-issue voters,” said Jacob Silverman, a technology writer and author of the best-selling book “Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud.” “If Trump or anyone else says they’re pro-bitcoin, that matters to them.”
Since Trump voiced his opposition to bitcoin in 2019, the industry has only seen more turmoil, including the arrest, trial and imprisonment of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Once the face of a company that counted comedian Larry David and superstar quarterback Tom Brady among its celebrity backers, Bankman-Fried was sentenced in March to 25 years in prison for masterminding a multibillion-dollar fraud through his companies.
Trump’s campaign would not say what prompted the former president to change his mind about bitcoin. Trump also did not address one of the main criticisms of digital currencies: that they lack practical, real-world uses and are a highly speculative investment. His appearance at the Nashville convention will be followed by a more traditional campaign event in St. Cloud, Minnesota, later in the day.
Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement to CNN that “crypto innovators and others in the tech sector are under attack” by Democrats, while the former president was “ready to encourage American leadership in this and other emerging technologies.”
Republican allies have joined Trump in his shift toward bitcoin. Speaking at the conference Friday, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said the former president understands their concerns about financial freedom — a common refrain in the crypto community.
“We want people, whether they love their money or their digital assets, to be responsible for their decisions,” Scott said.
Industry leaders have been courting Trump for months and briefing his campaign on their policy agenda and the opportunity to influence voters on the issue, David Bailey, CEO of bitcoin-focused media company BTC Inc, said in a recent interview.
Their pitch, Bailey acknowledged, included “the level of industry support he can get” by adopting cryptocurrency. Their conversations included a meeting with Trump earlier this summer at Mar-a-Lago.
“Everything accelerated quickly at that point,” said Bailey, whose company is hosting the annual conference where Trump will speak on Saturday.
Indeed, support for Trump was quick to follow. Cryptocurrency moguls Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss each pledged to donate $1 million in bitcoin to Trump’s campaign. The Federal Election Commission has allowed political committees to receive bitcoin as contributions since 2014, with the value determined by the price at the time the contribution is received.
Cryptocurrency was also a hot topic of discussion at a recent fundraiser in Silicon Valley hosted by Trump’s new running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance. Billionaire entrepreneur David Sacks, a prominent cryptocurrency advocate, hosted one of the fundraisers at his home.
“One of the things we heard a lot at this dinner is how difficult it is for business people to do business under the Biden administration,” Sacks said on a recent episode of his “All-In” podcast, which he co-hosts. “You have the crypto people who just want a framework. They just want the government to tell them how to operate, and they can’t get that.”
Industry executives and champions have become increasingly political, helping to fund super PACs that overwhelmingly supported Republicans over Democrats.
“It’s time for the crypto army to send a message to Washington,” Tyler Winklevoss wrote in a lengthy social media post supporting Trump. “Attacking us is political suicide.”
Eric Soufer, a policy adviser to major cryptocurrency companies, said that people involved in cryptocurrencies who were pushed out of power spaces after the Bankman-Fried episode “are looking for political validation after years in the wilderness.”
“They believe this is their moment, and it’s hard to resist someone who tells them everything they want to hear,” Soufer said.
The cryptocurrency industry has seen a resurgence in popularity since FTX’s collapse. After falling in 2022, the price of bitcoin recovered and hit an all-time high in June. The excitement around this year’s Nashville event was palpable inside the Music City Center. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also spoke at the conference on Friday.
Still, many Americans have expressed concern about cryptocurrencies, even as more people become aware of them. A 2023 Pew Research survey found that nearly 9 in 10 adults had heard of cryptocurrencies, and 75% of those people did not think they were safe or reliable.
But Trump’s courtship of crypto voters is in line with other efforts to find new support in unconventional places. Earlier this year, Trump reached out to members of the Libertarian Party at their annual convention, where he promised to “support the right of self-ownership for the 50 million cryptocurrency holders in the country.” There is considerable overlap between libertarians and the crypto community.
Trump supporters weren’t hard to find at the Bitcoin conference. John Fischer, a 61-year-old from Atlanta, has been personally investing in the cryptocurrency since 2021. He voted for Trump in 2020 and plans to do so again.
He was nonetheless clear-eyed about Trump’s attempts to woo conference attendees.
“Every politician has to be in favor of something if he wants to get votes,” Fischer said.
Luke Broyles, a 25-year-old Michigander who works in the crypto industry, was also unsure of Trump’s latest pleas despite his recent rhetoric.
“I think people who are interested in bitcoin are pretty skeptical,” Broyles said. “I think that’s reasonable. Ultimately, people are interested in bitcoin because they don’t trust politicians.”