Elon Musk praises pro-crypto presidential candidate

Cryptocurrency is quickly proving to be a major issue in the US- and this week, Elon Musk took to his social media platform to praise a pro-crypto presidential candidate

Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican presidential candidate, has made it no secret that he is a supporter of cryptocurrency, and that he hopes that the US would develop a stronger cryptocurrency environment. Earlier this year, he revealed that his campaign was open to receiving Bitcoin contributions.

This makes him the second candidate to do so, after Democrat Robert F Kennedy Jr did so earlier this year as well.

Elon Musk took to social media to praise the young candidate this weekend, saying that Ramaswamy was ‘a very promising candidate’. The comment from Musk was a response to an episode of the Tucker Carlson podcast.

Ramaswamy’s hopes for Bitcoin

Ramaswamy’s support for Bitcoin stems from his view that it provides a decentralised alternative to the US Dollar, and therefore would be helpful to augment the country’s financial infrastructure by holding the “existing system’s feet to the fire”.

However, Ramaswamy differs from RFK Jr on a key point- Ramaswamy does not support RFK Jr’s plan to use Bitcoin as a commodity to back the US Dollar, at least not right now.

For now, Ramaswamy believes that in order to stabilise the US Dollar, the Federal Reserve should focus on other commodities like gold, silver, and nickel.

“There could be a point in time where Bitcoin becomes part of that commodity basket”, Ramaswamy said. “But for a number of reasons, Bitcoin for me does not yet meet that commodity basket.”

Additionally, Ramaswamy has criticised Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, a longtime critic of cryptocurrencies, as someone “blinded by their quest for power, dominion, control, and punishment”.

Ramaswamy has also traded blows with another fellow Republican and presidential hopeful, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

After DeSantis launched his own campaign, promising to “protect the ability to do things like Bitcoin”, Ramaswamy criticised DeSantis, saying that even the language DeSantis uses reveals a shallow understanding of cryptocurrency.

Ramaswamy also claims that DeSantis has borrowed many proposals from Ramaswamy’s book ‘Woke Inc’.

Growing support for crypto?

Support for crypto has now been declared by candidates from both the Democratic and Republican party.

At the same time, bills to regulate crypto have also received bipartisan support. In July, the CANSEE Act was introduced to the US Senate by Senator Elizabeth Warren, and co-sponsors of the bill even included high-profile Republicans like Mitt Romney.

Evidently, crypto is now no longer a simple partisan issue. Support for or criticism of the industry cuts across party lines, and disagreements over crypto policy look to be a major issue moving forward.

However, this also means that there is significant uncertainty about the future of crypto. Neither party has identified themselves as pro-crypto or anti-crypto, since both parties have members who identify on either side of the issue. A Bitcoin president will, unfortunately, not be guaranteed unless both the Democratic and Republican Parties nominate a pro-Bitcoin candidate.

But there is hope- since crypto has supporters on both parties, it is also unlikely that either side can afford to alienate supporters of the industry, or declare themselves completely against crypto.

What does this mean for the industry? For one, it may still be too soon to declare a victory for the industry- but at the very least, a complete defeat seems unlikely.