The Republican nominee also pledged to provide the ‘cheapest’ energy by boosting fossil fuel production and expanding nuclear energy.
Former cryptocurrency skeptic Donald Trump declared he would be a “pro-Bitcoin president” if elected in November, appealing to an industry hindered by US regulations.
“The Biden-Harris administration’s repression of crypto and Bitcoin is wrong and very bad for our country,” Trump said to cheers at a conference in Tennessee on Saturday.
Comparing cryptocurrencies to the growth of the “steel industry of 100 years ago,” Trump stated, “Bitcoin stands for freedom, sovereignty, and independence from government coercion and control,” according to Agence France-Presse.
Trump promised that under his administration, the US government would not sell its Bitcoin holdings.
“This will serve as the core of the strategic national Bitcoin stockpile,” he said.
This proposal was more limited than one offered the previous day by third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suggested building a stockpile of 4 million Bitcoin.
“If we don’t embrace crypto and Bitcoin technology, China will, other countries will, they’ll dominate, and we cannot let China dominate,” Trump added.
“If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted, and made in the USA.”
Recognizing the importance of electricity costs in determining the locations of cryptocurrency mining operations, Trump pledged to make US energy the cheapest “of any nation on Earth” by ramping up fossil fuel production and utilizing nuclear energy.
“We’ll be doing it in an environmentally friendly way, but we will create so much electricity that you’ll be saying, ‘please, please, Mr. President, we don’t want any more electricity,’” he said.
On his first day in office, Trump promised to fire Gary Gensler, the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, who has been a frequent target of the cryptocurrency industry due to his slow approach to implementing regulations.
The crowd roared with approval at this proposal, prompting Trump to joke, “I didn’t know he was that unpopular.”
“Let me say it again. On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler,” he reiterated, to another eruption of cheers.
Trump also criticized Vice President Kamala Harris, set to replace Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee following the 81-year-old president’s unexpected exit from the campaign.
“We have to fight and we have to win, and I pledge to the Bitcoin community that the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s anti-crypto crusade will be over. It will end; it’ll be done,” Trump told the crowd.
“You’re going to be very happy with me.”
Post a Comment