Former United States President Donald Trump seems to have softened his view on Bitcoin, marking a notable deviation from his previous hardline stance. Despite maintaining his preference for the US dollar in a Wednesday interview, the Republican front-runner acknowledged the dominant cryptocurrency’s growing popularity and demand.
Bitcoin Has “Taken On A Life Of Its Own”
Back in 2019, while still in office, Donald Trump publicly asserted he was “not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies”, arguing that they are “not money” and their value is based on “thin air.” He also reportedly ordered the treasury secretary to “go after Bitcoin” and also called the top crypto a scam in another Fox interview. Let’s also not forget that Trump’s administration was known for its efforts to stonewall spot Bitcoin ETFs and attempted to ban self-hosted wallets.
Since then, he seems to have eased his stance. Speaking to Fox News during a town hall event in South Carolina on Wednesday alongside South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, Trump observed that “many people are embracing” Bitcoin and that as more people want to pay with BTC, he can “live with it one way or the other.”
He followed his comments by talking about plans to regulate the crypto sector. “It’s taken [on] a life of its own,” the former president stated. “You probably have to do some regulation.
Some crypto observers attributed the change in tune to pro-Bitcoin Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican candidate who supported Trump after dropping out of the White House race earlier this year. Ramaswamy has been both a champion of the cryptocurrency industry and against the launch of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In other words, Trump’s U-turn is likely politically motivated to garner more votes from the growing cryptosphere ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Trump’s softer stance on Bitcoin doesn’t necessarily mean that he is now anti-dollar, however. “I’ve always liked one currency. I call it a currency. I like the dollar,” he explained.
Trump believes CBDCs are dangerous and promised to “never allow” the Federal Reserve to create a digital dollar if reelected.
Meanwhile, his biggest competitor, Joe Biden, is skeptical of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. Biden previously proposed several measures to rein in crypto, including a 30% tax on crypto mining operations and releasing a scathing report bashing crypto for “ignorance of basic economic principles.”
With that being said, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave the regulatory nod in January to the first spot BTC ETFs in the U.S.
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