PALM BEACH, FL. – During his first period in the White House, Donald Trump was not a fan of cryptocurrencies; he once tweeted that she “based on thin air.” He later sold millions of dollars worth of NFTs. This week, he rebranded himself as crypto’s favorite candidate.
“If you’re pro-crypto, you’re going to vote for Trump because they want to end it,” he said at a Wednesday night party at Mar-a-Lago, referring to Democrats and President Joe Biden. He also promised to ensure his campaign can accept crypto donations.
The 77-year-old candidate’s apparent turnaround was no surprise to his audience of about 200 supporters. Many had purchased $10,000 worth of Trump Trading Card NFTs to attend this surreal, sizzling outdoor reception at the former president’s Florida palace. A CoinDesk reporter was also present (as +1).
For nearly an hour, Trump fielded questions from a sea of sweat-drenched suit wearers. Only a handful of them focused on crypto, an incredibly niche issue that provided the nominal anchor of the entire event.
But it was enough to make a few things clear:
Trump is not an expert on cryptocurrencies.
Trump is an expert on the subject sell cryptocurrencies.
The first two points don’t matter, because Trump has declared himself the champion of cryptocurrencies.
One exchange highlights points 1 and 3 (we will return to 2 later). When asked what he thought about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and “government blockchains” (two things that crypto proponents generally oppose), Trump replied, “I think it all has its place.”
He continued:
“Incredible things are happening, I mean crypto, if you go back to crypto a few years ago people were saying it wasn’t going to make it, but now it’s up in record numbers. I guess you could say it’s a form of currency is and I think I am for that, more and more I am for that.”
The substance of Trump’s support for crypto may be less important to the sector’s (probably small) cadre single-issue voters than the fact that he says something positive about it. Trump appears to be the first major party presidential candidate to embrace crypto.
Destroy Biden
On the other side of the race is an openly hostile presidential administration. Joe Biden’s SEC Chairman Gary Gensler is waging legal battles against many parts of the crypto industry. And earlier Wednesday, hours before his opponent’s golf resort gala, the president vowed to block a House effort to dismantle an SEC accounting rule for crypto that would undermine political opponents argue that this has hindered the industry’s growth.
“Biden doesn’t even know what it is. If you ask Biden, “Sir, are you for or against crypto?” he will say, ‘What is that? Get me off the stage.” He has no idea,” Trump said. Whether that somewhat plausible suspicion is true or not, Trump followed up with an attack on Gensler, an official well-versed in crypto.
“I will say this: I’m fine with it, I want to make sure it’s good and solid and everything else, but I’m good with it,” Trump said of crypto. He later said, “If we want to have what we have, we’re going to have to embrace a lot of things that not everyone likes.”
Hours before Trump’s impromptu Q&A, in an email to supporters, the Biden campaign grilled “people to pay as much as $10,000 for simple digital images of him.” The email accused Trump of hosting a glitzy NFT dinner instead of campaigning during his midweek break from court.
But Trump campaigned on Wednesday evening. He competed for votes from the exceptionally loud crypto crowd that Biden had thoroughly rejected. To be sure, only a few hundred heard him firsthand. Their videos of Trump’s pro-crypto musings ricocheted across social media and created a flood of media attention for crypto’s self-proclaimed political champion.
“There are 50 million crypto holders in the US. That’s a lot of voters,” Ryan Selkis, the CEO of crypto data platform Messari, claimed in the crowded ballroom of Mar-a-Lago, where VIPs (those who bought $10,000 worth of NFTs ) mingled with the dinner attendees (who paid $4,700). Trump had unexpectedly called Selkis to the stage.
The sound bites that emerged from Wednesday’s NFT gala could accelerate the polarization of crypto by locking it into the same us-or-them shackles that bind much of American politics. Bitcoin’s libertarian roots hardly resonate today; crypto has its proponents both sides of the aisle.
The most powerful voice in Republican politics has brushed aside the bipartisan reality of crypto by declaring that Democrats want to abolish it. “The Democrats are very much against it,” Trump said, hours after 21 of the 213 Democrats in the House of Representatives voted to repeal the SEC’s accounting rule.
Trump cast himself as the industry’s only hope. His fluency in the industry’s issues was sloppy. When asked how he would change the hostile US policy that is driving crypto companies out of the country, he said: “We will stop it, because I don’t want that, I don’t want that. I want that – if we If we want to embrace it, we have to let them be here.”
‘We’ve made NFTs hot again’
There was one area of crypto where Trump spoke more or less expertly: his NFTs. Three collections of Trump NFTs — digital trading cards depicting an uber-jacked Donald in various states of patriotism — have generated millions of dollars in sales. Wednesday’s dinner gala celebrated high-rollers who purchased his third collection, “Mugshot Edition.”
“We did it when NFTs weren’t hot and we made NFTs hot again,” Trump claimed of his cards, adding that some NFT buyers made tens of thousands of dollars on the resale market.
When asked by an attendee if he wanted to sell a fourth NFT collection, the longtime businessman demurred. “I believe in supply and demand. And as you know, 1 did great, 2 did great, 3 did great. At some point that might turn around.”
He asked the crowd: How many Mugshot high-rollers wanted a series 4 collection of NFTs? Most raised their hands. Trump sounded baffled: “Based on supply and demand, wouldn’t that maybe keep the prices of the stuff you’ve already bought lower?” He tested their resolve. “Who wants for that reason not to see a fourth collection?” Only a few hands shot up.
“Okay, some economists,” Trump said to laughter from the crowd.