What will Trump say at the Bitcoin conference?

Text: Shi Zhengcheng‍‍

Just before former US President Trump is about to attend the Bitcoin Conference this Saturday, this asset, which has long been regarded as "non-mainstream" by the investment circle, regained its upward trend on Friday and once touched the resistance level of 68,000 US dollars.

(Bitcoin daily chart, source: TradingView)

According to the schedule announced by the organizer, Trump will appear on the "Satoshi" stage on Saturday afternoon local time and give a 30-minute keynote speech. The industry generally expects that Trump will make some friendly remarks about the digital currency industry and promise to introduce policies that are favorable to the industry after winning this year's election.

(Source: Bitcoin Conference)

At the same time, with Biden, who obviously has little interest in Bitcoin, withdrawing from the election, Kamala Harris, whose political base is from California, seems to have signs of "changing the atmosphere."

1.What will Trump say?

From the former president who once criticized "cryptocurrency as a scam" to attending the offline Bitcoin Summit of 10,000 people, Trump's change of mind is also a microcosm of the interweaving of American politics and money.

After Trump publicly criticized "Democrats' attempts to regulate cryptocurrencies" at a fundraiser in San Francisco in June this year and met with Bitcoin mining companies at Mar-a-Lago, cryptocurrency is bound to become an election issue on Saturday.

Brian Hughes, senior adviser to the Trump campaign team, said in a statement that innovators and other technical people in the encryption field are being attacked by Harris and the Democrats. The Biden-Harris administration is stifling innovation through increased regulation and taxation, and Trump is ready to encourage the United States to play a leading role in this technology and other emerging technology fields.

What is more instructive is that in the 2024 election policy document approved by the Republican National Convention this month, it was clearly stated that it would "end the Democratic Party's illegal and un-American suppression of cryptocurrencies, oppose the creation of central bank digital currencies, and defend the right to mine Bitcoin."

(Source: The American Presidency Project)

So Trump's mention of "mining" and opposition to the "digital dollar" in his speech on Saturday were both expected developments.

As for some analysts' expectations that Trump will promise to "list Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset for the United States," if Trump really puts Bitcoin on a par with gold and oil, it will be a pleasant surprise for this alternative investment product.

For American politics, the fact that cryptocurrency policy has become so popular is also related to the power of money. The three major pro-cryptocurrency super PACs - Fairshake, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress, all of which were established in the current election cycle, have received more than $230 million in donations to support candidates who are favorable to cryptocurrency policies or to ensure that opponents lose the election.

For example, Fairshake invested $10 million in this year's California Senate primary against Democratic candidate Katie Porter because she questioned the impact of cryptocurrency mining on the climate. Katie eventually lost the primary.

According to the latest reports this week, since Trump announced that he would accept cryptocurrency donations, he has received more than $4 million worth of various cryptocurrencies. In addition to the founders and executives of the cryptocurrency industry, ordinary people such as housewives, pizza company salesmen, and US State Department IT staff have donated a variety of digital assets to him.

In addition, before the Bitcoin Conference on Saturday, Trump will also hold a small fundraising event - the threshold for participation ranges from $60,000 to $840,000. Previously, people familiar with the matter said that this would be an event with a scale of "more than 100 people".

2.Will Harris loosen up on cryptocurrency?

As Harris locks in the support of the bigwigs in the Democratic Party, it has become a high probability event that she will face Trump in 3 months.

Since Biden announced his withdrawal from the race, people in the technology circle have also speculated whether a potential Harris administration would take a more moderate regulatory attitude toward cryptocurrencies.

Mark Cuban, a well-known investor and cryptocurrency enthusiast, said in an interview with the media this week that Harris's advisory team had approached him to ask questions about cryptocurrencies, which he believed was a "good sign." Although "obviously not recognized by the vice president," Cuban believes that Harris will be "more open" to cryptocurrencies.

More speculation surrounding Harris still focuses on the background that "she is from California."

Venture capitalist and Democratic Party big moneymaker Ron Conway posted on social media X this week that he has known Harris for decades, and she has been a fighter, leader and advocate for the technology ecosystem since the day they met.