Donald Trump, the sexual predator, financial felon, and former president, gave a speech at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville in which he promised many things that the cryptocurrency industry has been hoping for. These included having the United States hold bitcoin, removing Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Gary Gensler, and support for stablecoins.
United States Bitcoin Reserve
Trump noted that the United States Federal Government currently holds 210,000 bitcoins, and he insisted that if he is elected, it will hold them indefinitely.
This isn’t a promise that he’ll likely be able to follow through with, since many of these coins likely have other claims against them. For example, more than 90,000 of these are bitcoins that were seized by the government with the arrest of Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein for laundering the proceeds of the Bitfinex hack.
If Bitfinex ends up receiving these coins, it has stated that it intends to use them first to pay off Recovery Rights Token (RRT) holders from the time of the hack, and 80% of the remainder it intends to distribute to holders of the Unus Sed Leo token, originally created to fill the insolvency in Bitfinex’s balance sheet after trusting a billion dollars with an unlicensed money transmitter, Crypto Capital Corp.
Obviously, Trump would fire Gensler
Trump received loud cheers from the crowd when he confirmed that he’d replace Gensler as SEC chairman.
This isn’t surprising, as this position is appointed by the president and is very often replaced when a new administration comes into power. Indeed, at the beginning of Trump’s first term, he replaced Barack Obama nominee Mary Jo White with Jay Clayton.
Trump also claimed he wanted to advance new regulations for the crypto industry, though details are sparse on the ground. There were references to ‘freedom to transact.’ Presumably, the ‘Bitcoin and Crypto Advisory Council‘ he intends to start will have additional clarification on what those regulations will be.
Additionally, he claimed he wanted to prevent the industry from being cut off from financial services, referencing the so-called ‘Operation Chokepoint 2.0.’
Read more: Bitcoin lobbying group warns UK not to sell its 61,000 bitcoins
Trump also emphasized that he wanted to make sure stablecoins are able to continue to exist, additionally claiming that “Bitcoin is not threatening the dollar.” Additionally, he noted there would be no CBDC while he was president.
Playing the hits
Most of the speech was Trump playing his hits, claiming that he will “drill baby drill” until you are forced to say, “no more electricity, sir.” This was interspersed with lies about the election being rigged, lies about Biden not ending wars (Biden withdrew from Afghanistan, something Trump promised but never did), and keeping his belief that China is a threat front and center.
Near the end of his speech, Trump told the attendees, “Have a good time with your bitcoin and your crypto and everything else that you’re playing with.”
