It appears that the movement between former US President Donald Trump and the leading Republican candidate ahead of the November presidential election is heating up. Bitcoin BTC
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In the past, I have been critical of cryptocurrencies.
President Trump said in January that if elected, he would “never allow” the U.S. central bank to issue digital currency. “Such a currency would give the federal government, our federal government, absolute control over your money… They can take your money and you won’t even know it’s gone,” he warned at the time.
In a recent Fox News town hall with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Trump was asked whether Bitcoin was decentralized, out of government hands, and whether having all young people embrace Bitcoin was the logical next step. These are people of particular interest, suggested host Laura Ingraham.
“I’ve always liked one currency. I call it currency. “I like the dollar, but a lot of people are doing it (Bitcoin) and frankly the dollar has taken on a life of its own,” Trump responded. “As you know, I think there needs to be some level of regulation, but a lot of people are accepting that. And more and more people want to pay with Bitcoin and see it as interesting, so I can live with that in some way.”
Some Bitcoin users attributed this comment to pro-Bitcoin Vivek Ramaswamy, who supported Trump after dropping out of the U.S. presidential race in January and was Trump’s vice-presidential candidate. The founder of biotech company Roivant Sciences has advocated for the cryptocurrency industry while opposing CBDC implementation.
Donald Trump’s Changing Views on Cryptocurrency
In June 2021, Trump seemed even more critical of Bitcoin, declaring in another interview with Fox News that “it just looks like a scam.”
“Bitcoin, it looks like a scam. I’m surprised. In our case, the price was $6,000 and it was much lower. I don’t like Bitcoin because it’s another currency that competes with the dollar. In essence, Bitcoin competes with the dollar. “I want the dollar to become the world’s currency,” he said at the time.
As president in 2019, Trump also criticized Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, have high volatility in value, and are based on thin air,” Trump said.
But Trump has since begun promoting his own non-fungible tokens, including a December 2022 trading card collection and a “mugshot edition” of last December’s collection. Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics platform, revealed that the cryptocurrency portfolio believed to be owned by Trump sold 1,075 ETH, worth about $2.4 million at the time, in the same month.
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