WWhen the pandemic hit in 2020, DJ and personal trainer Jonnie King stopped being booked for shows and workout sessions. So he turned to trading cryptocurrencies, the value of which was increasing rapidly at the time. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s hope for me. I can make money stuck at home,’” he says.
Four years later, King is a devout believer who keeps most of his assets in cryptocurrencies. And although he voted for Bernie Sanders in 2016 – due to Sanders’ focus on uplifting the working class – King is now a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, due to Trump’s recent embrace of cryptography.
“I can probably say it’s a one-vote issue for me, because that’s my livelihood,” King tells TIME. “Crypto is how I save my wealth, and if [the Democrats] they’re trying to attack this, it’s literally taking my money away from me. How should I support my family?
King exemplifies a growing faction from within the cryptocurrency community supporting Trump with open arms. For years, both during his presidency and after, Trump has expressed distrust of encryption. In 2021 he even said that Bitcoin it seemed like a scam. But ahead of the 2024 election, Trump did an about-face and praised the technology. And just in the last week, he’s taken several more significant steps to win over the crypto faithful: He announced an appearance at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville on July 27, a new NFT project, and chose a staunchly pro-crypto vice presidential candidate in JD Vance.
The crypto world has returned the enthusiasm. Despite any misgivings they may have about other parts of Trump’s platform or criminal convictions, many believe he will provide a significant benefit to the industry if elected. The crypto community on X, formerly known as Twitter, is rife with pro-Trump sentiment and crypto money is spilling over into the Trump campaign. And after Trump’s shooting, Bitcoin soared in price, apparently based on the belief that the event increased Trump’s chances of being elected.
“Trump has had an incredible and surprisingly positive impact in this space,” Kristin Smith, CEO of crypto lobby group The Blockchain Association, tells TIME. “That wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card.”
Trump’s crypto U-turn
Trump didn’t go into much detail about his newfound love for cryptography after criticizing it for so many years. But he used the industry as a wedge issue, directly contrasting himself with left-wing crypto skeptics like Elizabeth Warren. And because the crypto lobby it is well organized and full of money, it offers Trump a lot of potential money.
Trump has attended several fundraisers filled with cryptocurrency executives, who have promised to throw him more fundraisers, according to The washington Publish. Crypto tycoons Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss each one donated $1 Million in Bitcoin for Trump, Criticizing Biden’s “War on Crypto,” and Trump Discussed Crypto Policy with Pro-Crypto Businessman Elon Musk, According to Bloomberg. (Musk has since supported Trump.) The price of attending a “VIP reception” with Trump at the upcoming Bitcoin conference is a cool $844,600 per person.
When Trump announced that his campaign would accept cryptocurrency donations, a statement on his website said the decision was part of a broader fight against “socialist government control” over US financial markets. (Joe Biden hasn’t said much publicly about encryption, but his administration supported stricter policies Made for protect consumers.)
See more information: Why Donald Trump is betting on crypto
And earlier this month, The Publish reported that a Trump adviser added language about encryption to the Republican Party platform, which surprised longtime party members. Part of the passage read: “We will defend the right to mine Bitcoin and ensure that all Americans have the right to self-custody of their digital assets and to transact free from government surveillance and control.” (Government agencies currently use blockchain tracking to track crypto scammers and other criminals.)
See more information: Inside the health crisis of a Bitcoin town in Texas
JD Vance, Trump’s Vice Presidential Pick, Boosts His Crypto Reputation
On Monday, Trump further energized crypto fans by choosing the Pro-crypto Senator JD Vance as his running mate. While running for Senate in 2021, Vance released that he owned more than $100,000 worth of Bitcoin. In the same year, he called the crypto community “one of the few sectors of our economy where conservatives and other free thinkers can operate without pressure from the social justice mob.” Vance too received significant campaign funding from pro-crypto entrepreneur Peter Thiel.
Earlier this year, Vance circulated draft legislation to overhaul cryptocurrency regulation and make it clearer whether specific crypto tokens should be regulated by the SEC or the CFTC. Political reported that the proposal appears to be “more industry-friendly” than previously presented bills.
The crypto industry has widely applauded the idea of a personal Bitcoin holder potentially entering the White House next year. “Senator Vance – an emerging voice for pro-innovation, fit-for-purpose crypto legislation – is an ideal candidate to lead the Republican Party’s crypto principles,” Kristin Smith wrote to TIME in an email.
Project 2025 also supports the crypto industry
Looming over the election is Project 2025, a far-reaching conservative project led by the Heritage Foundation that spells out the policies Trump should adopt if elected, including launching mass deportations and combating “anti-white” discrimination. While Trump distanced of the Social Truth proposal, dozens of Trump allies and former government officials are connected for the project.
The crypto industry is excited about the crypto-related language in Project 2025. The document flame the president to abolish the Federal Reserve (whose monetary policies have long been abhorred by crypto advocates) and move the US to a free banking system in which the dollar is backed by a valuable commodity like gold – or, crypto enthusiasts hope cryptography, Bitcoin itself. However, there is no indication that Trump or anyone in his administration considered the idea. The document also calls on regulators to clarify the rules around cryptocurrencies, just as Vance is pushing, which could open the door to greater adoption of cryptocurrencies.
See more information: What is Project 2025?
Questions about Trump’s commitment to Bitcoin persist
Despite all this, there are crypto fans who are skeptical that Trump’s sudden adoption of Bitcoin will have lasting weight beyond an election year issue. Some of Trump’s stated policy proposals, which have been described as authoritarian, appear to counteract Bitcoin’s libertarian and anti-government bias. For example, his call for all Bitcoin mining to be localized in the US angered certain crypto idealists, as decentralization and immunity to government pressure are a fundamental part of the spirit of crypto mining.
Moe Vela, a former Biden adviser and senior advisor to the Unicoin cryptocurrency project, is skeptical of Trump’s intentions. “It wasn’t that long ago that he was attacking cryptography,” he says. “The crypto community tends to be a bit inexperienced when it comes to legislation, politics and policy – and I encourage them not to fall victim to sycophancy.”
Vela argues that “healthy and balanced” regulation of crypto is essential to the industry’s growth. “If we don’t have regulation that eliminates bad actors – and we’ve already seen that we have our share of bad actors – this weakens confidence in the sector,” he says.
And Vitalik Buterin, principal founder of the cryptocurrency Ethereum, wrote a blog post on June 17 warning crypto enthusiasts not to vote simply based on a candidate’s crypto stance. “Making decisions this way carries a high risk of going against the values that brought you into the crypto space in the first place,” He wrote.
Some research suggests that cryptography is still an extremely niche interest. O Federal Reserve Found that only 7% of American adults have used or held crypto in 2023, and other research has suggested that anti-crypto sentiment remains high. But the crypto industry is convinced that there could be thousands of single-issue crypto voters like Jonnie King who will lift Trump in the next election.
“Maybe it’s just a politician being political to win votes,” King says of Trump’s pro-cryptocurrency stance. “I’m not saying that no man is perfect. But when Biden is campaigning in a war against cryptography, the only system that is hope for money, I see that there is no way forward.
“If Trump can give us some hope — even if it’s just hope — that’s something.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
