Donald Trump, ex-US president, and hard polariser of public opinion, has announced he is having a third crack at the top job. But what does that mean for crypto?
The golden-haired businessman has put himself back in the game. Trump’s speech last Wednesday included promises to bring about America’s “comeback”.
For some crypto enthusiasts, this news could be a little disheartening, as Trump is a known critic of cryptocurrencies.
Before being famously kicked off Twitter, Trump made his views on digital assets very clear. His deleted tweets are still available on internet vaults for us to refer to until the end of time.
The Don said, “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behaviour, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”
Old man mentality
Trump is four spins-of the-earth-around-the-sun-short from being 80 years old. Ample research shows that the Boomer generation has long been the most suspicious of all-things crypto.
While many of us may have been suspicious of cryptocurrencies and NFTs at one point, the adoption rate of crypto shows that industry leaders and users — despite being sceptical — are aware that the underlying technology is a part of our future. Research shows more than 10% of global internet users own some form of crypto, with estimations stating there are close to 300 million holders worldwide.
Whether Trump likes it or not, he’ll likely be holding digital assets in the future.
After Trump’s negative tweets about all things Web3, the crypto community responded hard and fast. While Trump’s tweets have been deleted, the responses still stand.
The replies to his initial thoughts on crypto are in an epic thread worth reading. In fact, set aside an hour or two in a nice shady spot with a cool drink. The thread features the Who’s Who from the crypto world, all trying to get the Boomer over the line on crypto.
US Dollar allegiance
Trump is loud and clear about his deep affection for the US Dollar in his heady days of tweeting pre-Musk ban..
“We have only one real currency in the USA, and it is stronger than ever, both dependable and reliable. It is by far the most dominant currency anywhere in the World, and it will always stay that way. It is called the United States Dollar!”
Again, this is another thread worth sinking deep into, so get two Redbulls and a beanbag – you must fall down this rabbit hole to feel cleansed in life.
Trump also stated in an interview on Fox News that he thinks Bitcoin is a scam and he doesn’t like that it competes against the dollar. “I want the dollar to be the currency of the world. That’s what I’ve always said.”
The Melania lifeline
While Trump is a crypto hater, his better half, Melania, being younger and hotter than Trump, could be the key to turning Trump around on crypto acceptance. It’s just like the way you have to speak to grandad at Xmas when he expresses Boomer doubtage – gently, with lots of extra gravy.
Melania has been vocal about her purchase of NFTs and remains active in the community. Initially, she was accused of buying her own NFTs to boost her brand. Her reputation seems to have recovered from this early fiasco, and she has pushed on with her NFT interest. Mrs Trump also brought out an NFT series called The Official POTUS TRUMP NFT Collection.
In the past few days, Melania has released a new offering – a range of Christmas decorations that are real-life ornaments paired with an NFT. We gotta say, the Gold Christmas Star is something we would be dumb enough to buy.
While Trump’s announcement to run again as the Whitehouse frolicker was surprisingly lacklustre and passed the media by like a ship in the night, he could win again. Stranger things have happened.
Donald Trump has backflipped on many things over the past decade, including on issues of quarantine, Russian interference, election delays, and intelligence, among others. So if he wins, he may change his Boomer stance on crypto. Or, he could highly likely use the FTX fallout against Biden, since SBF was one of his campaign’s most generous supporters.
