Selling Trump: The former president’s crypto-political and business friends and “business acumen”

Author: Mia, ChainCatcher

At 18:11 on July 13, Eastern Time, former US President Trump, a popular candidate for the election, was attacked at a presidential campaign rally in Pennsylvania. As several gunshots fell, the voices of Trump winning the election reached an unprecedented height.

As the suspense of the US election gradually became clear, the assassination incident also became a catalyst for market trends. Cryptocurrency rebounded immediately, quickly breaking through 60,000 US dollars and once reaching 65,000 US dollars.

Two days after the assassination attempt, Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social that he would choose Republican Ohio Senator JD Vance as his vice presidential candidate. Vance has been a long-term supporter of encryption technology and publicly disclosed that he has more than 200,000 US dollars in crypto assets. He appreciates the freedom that cryptocurrencies provide through their anti-censorship properties. The nomination of Vance has undoubtedly strengthened the Trump camp's belief in cryptocurrencies.

During his previous presidency, Trump appointed several officials who were friendly to cryptocurrencies, which may be one of the reasons why crypto assets rose collectively when Trump's election prospects improved.

Several crypto-friendly people have served in the Trump administration

J.D. Vance, Trump's vice president for the 2024 election, is a supporter of cryptocurrencies. In addition to owning crypto assets, he has also publicly criticized the US SEC for over-regulating cryptocurrencies.

J.D. Vance voted in the Senate to repeal the SAB-121 accounting standard, which the cryptocurrency industry is extremely opposed to, and plans to propose a more friendly cryptocurrency regulatory bill.

During his previous presidency, Trump appointed several crypto-friendly people to important positions.

On July 21, 2017, Anthony Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital, was appointed as Trump's White House Communications Director. Skybridge Capital is a hedge fund company that manages $3.5 billion in assets, nearly half of which is related to crypto assets. Its founder Anthony Scaramucci is also a staunch supporter and advocate of Bitcoin.

On December 15, 2018, Trump appointed Bitcoin supporter Mick Mulvaney as White House Chief of Staff. Mick Mulvaney is a cryptocurrency supporter and advocate who was one of the people working to create the Blockchain Caucus when he was in the House of Representatives (the Blockchain Caucus is a group of legislators who write and make new laws for emerging technologies such as cryptocurrencies) and helped draft two new legislative bills to support the development and evolution of the blockchain industry - House Resolution 1108 and House Resolution 7002.

In April 2020, Trump appointed billionaire and blockchain supporter Mark Cuban as an advisor to the Trump administration. Mark Cuba has always been known as a Bitcoin tycoon for his bold advocacy of cryptocurrency investment. He compared the cryptocurrency landscape to the explosive growth during the Internet boom in the 1990s, emphasizing its potential for huge returns.

On June 4, 2020, Trump nominated Hester Peirce, a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for a second term, and she has earned the nickname "Crypto Mom" ​​for her support of digital assets (and criticism of excessive regulation of crypto assets).

The presidential family that likes to issue NFTs

The Trump family also likes to issue crypto assets.

Former First Lady Melania was the first person in the Trump family to actively embrace cryptocurrency. Melania launched her first NFT "Head of State" collection through her website in late 2021, priced at 1 Sol, which was about $185 at the time, and released on Solana.

When asked about Melania's NFT by Fox, Trump said: "She will do well, she has a rich imagination."

After leaving the White House, Trump has been good at using his name to profit from his brand, and the crypto market, which is easily manipulated by personal influence, has become the best stage.

Following the example of his wife, Trump began to embrace NFT. In December 2022, it announced the release of a limited edition Trump digital trading card NFT on truth social. The NFT was minted on Polygon and priced at US$99. It was sold out after its release. According to OpenSea data, a total of 45,000 NFT transactions exceeded 648 ETH, equivalent to US$785,000, and its floor price once reached 0.84 ETH.

Since then, the road to issuing Trump series NFTs has been unstoppable. It has launched "Win Trump Prizes", the second series of Trump Digital Trading Cards" and "Mugshot Edition", and empowered NFT rights including dinner with Trump, video calls, golf and other rights. According to relevant documents, Trump earned $2.8 million through NFT sales.

Facing the American society led by Generation Z youth, the cryptocurrency crowd has become an important influencing force.

According to Coinbase data, in 2023, 52 million Americans will own cryptocurrencies, accounting for 20% of the adult population in the United States. Under this general trend, in order to maximize political goals and commercial interests, as well as to win votes, Trump has become a "sudden crypto supporter."

Trump said in his campaign speech that if he becomes the president of the United States again, he will never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). He believes that this will give the government absolute control over funds and will be on May 9 On the 28th, Trump officially accepted donations in the form of cryptocurrency for the US presidential campaign, and this move also won a lot of support for Trump and established a firm foothold for the election.

Pardoning Crypto People

Before leaving office in 2021, Trump pardoned Ripple board member Ken Kurson.

According to the New York Times, Trump met with supporters on a private plane provided by a scrap metal recycling giant and a cryptocurrency miner at the end of 2021.

This time, in order to attract many young American votes, Trump promised the public in May that if he won the election, he would pardon Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, and emphasized his support for the right to self-custody, which undoubtedly aroused widespread consensus in the crypto community. After all, Ross was a martyr in the eyes of many cryptocurrency enthusiasts and libertarians.

In addition, Trump's recent public statements on the crypto field have also won the support of the US crypto industry.

Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell once wrote that he donated $100 million to Trump as an individual.

After Trump was attacked, Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey publicly stated that he plans to raise $15 million for former US President Trump's re-election campaign later this month.

For the first time, Musk, the "father of Dogecoin", publicly expressed his support for Trump and promised to donate about $45 million a month to a new super political action committee to support Trump's presidential campaign.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Gemini's two co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss each donated $250,000 to Trump Super PAC.

At the same time, according to public data, Trump Super PAC, which was previously supported by Palantir's Joe Lonsdale and cryptocurrency billionaires Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, raised $8.8 million in the second quarter of this year.

Crypto attitude shift may be a political means

Some crypto people who are well versed in American politics do not buy into Trump's recent positive crypto remarks.

Arthur Hayes criticized Trump's "sudden concern for cryptocurrencies" in his recent blog post "Hot Chick" as insincere, saying that "pleasing the young, politically active and upstart cryptocurrency groups" is just a means for Trump to win the election. He also predicted that once Trump takes office, his so-called support and concern for cryptocurrencies "will become a distant memory."

The doubts from the crypto community are not limited to this.

As early as May of this year, at the Trump NFT dinner, Trump was pointed out that he was not really proficient in cryptocurrency policy. In nearly an hour, only a few questions in Trump's speech focused on cryptocurrencies, and his understanding of crypto policies was sporadic and not worth scrutinizing. When asked how he would change the policy of expelling the crypto industry from the country, he said: "We will stop it because I don't want that. I hope that if we are going to embrace it, then we must keep them here", and such an answer obviously did not give specific policy directions and measures.

Regarding Trump's sudden turn in his attitude towards cryptocurrencies, some senior people and observers in the crypto community also pointed out that Trump's attitude towards cryptocurrencies in the past was not friendly, and he even publicly declared that Bitcoin was a scam and called for stronger regulation. Now that his position has taken a 180-degree turn, it is hard not to doubt the motives behind it. As Arthur Hayes and others have criticized, Trump's positive crypto remarks may be just a temporary political show. Once elected, whether he will really fulfill his promise and bring substantial benefits to the cryptocurrency industry remains an unknown.

Despite the shooting, Trump said he would still deliver a speech at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference as scheduled. Whether the content of the speech will bring deeper crypto insights and future policies will remain to be seen.