Prepare for the Bitcoin presidency Has Crypto's moment come?

Until about 2018, crypto was a political non-issue. Its proponents may have thought it mattered in DC, but the truth is almost no one cared. Few used it; even fewer understood it. As an editor of a crypto magazine called Breaker, I discovered this first-hand. If I ran a story on crypto and politics, only the odd advisor or politician would pay attention.

But, then, the industry began donating to political candidates. Sam Bankman-Fried, who later went to prison for an $8 billion fraud, gave money to one third of Congress, writing cheques to politicians on both sides of the aisle. That balance made sense: in Congress, crypto was still largely bipartisan. Neither side cared enough to take a more assertive position on digital assets.

That’s where Trump saw an opportunity, claiming crypto for himself and his party. He recognised a rich and powerful community looking for mainstream acceptance, a community of innovators ideologically aligned on freedom and a belief in American capitalism. There was a clash between MAGA nationalism and crypto’s borderless ethos. But it didn’t seem to matter: each side was useful to the other.

Trump’s interest in and embrace of crypto helped turn Bitcoin into a wedge issue, with Gensler leading several aggressive enforcement actions at the SEC, often accusing companies of illegally selling securities. Something similar happened at the local level: several Democratic states banned Bitcoin mining, citing environmental concerns. Liberals also led a punitive attack — known as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0″ — on crypto companies’ ability to access banking services. Democrats, in short, were happy to let crypto die in America, with many companies considering relocating overseas as a result.

So when Trump stood before the Bitcoin Conference, claiming the US would become the “crypto capital of the world”, crypto was willing to help, willing to do anything it could to rid itself of the Democratic menace. And so it proved: Pacs and campaign groups helped rally the estimated 50 million American crypto holders to vote for Trump and other pro-crypto candidates in down-ballot races. To get supporters out, they also worked with powerful influencers who pushed the idea that crypto needed to work with Trump to survive. They described it as an existential crisis — and they weren’t completely wrong.

We don’t yet know how many crypto fans voted for Trump on Tuesday. But given that we know that crypto is mostly a young person’s game — largely the preserve of the very online and very talented — the signs are there. Compared with 2020, Trump increased his support among voters under 30 from 36% to 42%. Harris, for her part, saw a 5% drop in young backers compared to Biden four years ago. Could crypto have got out the vote? It certainly spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting crypto-friendly candidates this election.

And the asset hit an all-time high when it was confirmed it had a friend in the White House. I imagine crypto’s influence on and in politics is now only going to continue to grow. The big question is how crypto will use its newfound power. It will look to expand the range of products it can sell legally, and improve its reputation with the general public — familiarity will help. Now it has the ear of the man in the White House, and Democrats know they can no longer afford to dismiss crypto. And crypto won’t dismiss politics. It will continue spending big: only last week, a leading venture capital firm pledged $23 million, earmarked for the 2026 election.

But will Trump deliver on his promises? He would have to commute Ulbricht’s sentence and oust Gensler from the SEC, replacing him with someone more crypto-friendly. And beyond these statements of intent, Trump needs to make some concrete moves. The biggest boon would be to pass a “Bitcoin Act” establishing the Strategic Reserve. Republicans, who are likely to control both chambers in Congress, could also pass legislation on stablecoins — the most popular form of crypto — and clear up the question as to which tokens in circulation are covered by long-standing securities law, which purports to protect investors. This last question is crucial, as a large proportion of the SEC’s enforcement actions involved the agency asserting that particular tokens were securities and under its purview.

If he did at least some of this, Trump would continue to be crypto’s guy, even if Democrats started playing nice. Certainly, Bitcoin’s attraction as hard money sits quite neatly with the Right’s suspicion of the Fed as an elite institution serving the elite, particularly at a time of inflation. But increasingly, people on the Left and centre-left are coming to understand that it is a symbol of people wanting more sane public finances and an end to the status quo that serves mostly boomers, Wall Street and Washington insiders. So with Elon Musk, another crypto supporter, at his side, Trump is perfectly placed to transform the position of the technology across American society, cementing its success within the mainstream financial system while elevating it as a political and social power bloc. Nashville was just the start.

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Ben Schiller is the managing editor for features and opinion at CoinDesk, a news site specialising in Bitcoin and digital currencies.

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