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It’s day two of Nashville’s Bitcoin Conference, but many attendees are waiting for day three.
The reason? Saturday (July 27), at 2 p.m., is when U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will give a keynote address to the conference.
The former president and current hopeful, who once dismissed bitcoin as a “scam” competing against the U.S. dollar, is now positioning himself as a proponent of the crypto industry.
Trump has already raised more than $4 million in crypto for his campaign war chest, and the crypto audience represents an attractive and lucrative voting bloc, particularly given their ongoing disillusionment with the current state of existing domestic digital asset policy.
A free T-shirt being offered to attendees of the conference reads “Vote Trump.”
Per a Barron’s report, the prevailing sentiment among certain bitcoin investors and enthusiasts is that Trump will use his speech to make a major announcement, something along the lines of throwing his support behind having the U.S. government buy bitcoin as a “strategic reserve” asset, akin to foreign currencies, or oil.
Central banks’ investment in bitcoin would lend credibility to cryptocurrency, potentially elevating it to a status similar to gold in terms of being a store of value. Any such move could have a far-ranging influence on discussions around digital currencies and monetary sovereignty.
Trump, who has pitched himself as the “crypto president,” isn’t the only politician speaking at the crypto festival. Republican former candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and lawmakers from both parties — including Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming — are also slated to speak.
See also: Trump Running Mate J.D. Vance’s Antitrust Views Divide Business Leaders
Crypto Industry Looks to Increase Beltway Influence
Trump’s rebranding as a crypto-friendly candidate is part of a larger trend among Republicans to embrace digital currencies and blockchain technology. This strategy aims not only to attract a young and tech-savvy demographic but also to tap into the substantial financial resources of the crypto sector. By aligning with the interests of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, Trump and his party are seeking to leverage the political and economic potential of this burgeoning industry.
Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, has maintained a positive view on the digital asset sector throughout his political career, and voted as a senator accordingly.
The Republican Party’s platform states that the GOP will “end Democrats’ unlawful and unAmerican Crypto crackdown” and “defend the right to mine Bitcoin.”
And as PYMNTS wrote earlier this month, the need for clear regulatory frameworks remains one of the most pressing issues facing the crypto industry.
“What we are seeing, where it’s the UK, Japan, Singapore … even the European Union, more than two dozen countries have come together to provide a framework for crypto regulation,” Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse said last week (July 17). “It’s frustrating that we as a country can’t get that framework in place. And instead, we have this interminable litigation coming from the SEC that really isn’t solving the problem.”
Ripple earlier this year donated $25 million to the crypto industry super PAC Fairshake, with Garlinghouse saying at the time that those donations would continue each year, as long as the sector had its naysayers.
Read more: Blockchain’s Benefits for Regulated Industries
As the 2024 elections approach, the cryptocurrency sector is poised to play an increasingly significant role in American politics, across both parties.
Per a Politico report on Tuesday (July 23), billionaire investor and bitcoin enthusiast Mark Cuban believes that Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris would be “far more open” to crypto, though he noted that was “certainly not confirmed by the VP.”
Potentially contributing to the more mainstream embrace of crypto is the fact that institutions are starting to warm up to digital assets, too.
Coinbase Asset Management is reportedly creating a tokenized money market fund, while asset manager BlackRock introduced a tokenization of real-world assets: a fund called BUIDL that holds U.S. Treasurys and gained $500 million of assets following its launch in March.
The tokenization of real-world assets is a function of the blockchain landscape that has captured the imagination of various players across payments, finance and commerce, PYMNTS reported in April.
As PYMNTS Intelligence’s latest report revealed, regulated industries, including healthcare and financial services, must adhere to numerous requirements, such as know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML) and data privacy regulations. Blockchain could help these industries in that regard.
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