Occur in Bitcoin Conference 2024 In Nashville on Saturday, former President Donald Trump made several pledges to the Bitcoin community if he is elected in 2024. Most notably, Trump said he would create a national strategic reserve of Bitcoin as an economic asset.
“I pledge to the Bitcoin community that on the day I take the oath of office, the anti-crypto campaign of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will end,” “The United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world.”
Trump has vowed to fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler on his first day in office and appoint a new chairman who is more friendly to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. He has also said the government will hold 100% of existing Bitcoin instead of auctioning it off, slowly building a national reserve.
“Bitcoin represents freedom, sovereignty, and independence from government coercion and control,” Trump said. “Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will skyrocket in value if I am elected president.”
The former president’s comments were well-received by the largely liberal crowd. Andrew Campbell, one of the attendees, told Wired that he would vote for Trump this time around after not voting in 2016 or 2020. “I think we’ve gone too far to the left, and we need to step back a little bit and refocus,” he said.
Trump also reiterated his pledge to pardon Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht on his first day in office. Ulbricht is serving a life sentence plus 40 years without parole. Trump claimed that Bitcoin is not a threat to the dollar, but rather “the current US government is a threat to the dollar.”
After Trump’s speech, Bitcoin’s value rose more than 3%, reaching its highest price in six weeks.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also spoke at the conference, pledging to create a $4 million bitcoin reserve if elected. Trump’s plan doesn’t go that far, but it still represents a major embrace of bitcoin by the Republican candidate.
With Bitcoin becoming a major issue in the 2024 campaign, Trump is clearly looking to appeal to the growing Bitcoin and crypto wing within the Republican Party. And based on the enthusiastic reception in Nashville, the strategy appears to be effective in securing the Bitcoin vote.