- In 2017, the Trump administration authorized regulated bitcoin futures, earning him the moniker “America’s first crypto president.”
- To back pro-crypto politicians in the impending election, the crypto sector has raised more than $100 million.
Though he may have successfully courted pro-crypto voters last week by promising to welcome the growing digital asset market if elected president again, former regulator believes that Donald Trump’s street credibility in the crypto space goes back to 2017. Reporting by Eleanor Terret of Fox Business.
🚨NEW from me: Former CFTC regulator says Trump became country's 'first crypto president' during first year in office @giancarloMKTS gave remarks during a speech at the @DigitalChamber Blockchain Summit this morning.https://t.co/z08prgctIP
— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) May 15, 2024
Trump: First Crypto President of America
Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Chris Giancarlo declared during a crypto policy summit in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday that Trump has already established himself as “America’s first crypto president.”
It having done so since his first year in office, when his administration approved the introduction of bitcoin futures contracts at the CFTC.
“In addition to declaring he’s now ‘good with it’ — crypto, that is — Trump may properly claim to be ‘America’s first crypto president,’” Giancarlo said. “That is because regulated bitcoin futures were introduced during the first year of the Trump administration.”
The world’s first digital commodity, bitcoin, is valued in U.S. dollars, thanks in large part to the long-lasting success of that regulated futures market, he said, describing it as a significant development for the future of digital assets.
“United in support of regulatory innovation,” Giancarlo and his colleagues CFTC commissioners declared in 2017 that cryptocurrency was not political.
Seven years later, with Trump’s announcement at a Florida event last week that he would, if elected, end the “hostility” the cryptocurrency industry has faced from Democratic lawmakers and Biden regulators, cryptocurrency is set to become a political issue for the first time in a presidential election.
Trump urged the audience to support him “in any form,” even implying that he would begin taking bitcoin donations for his campaign.
Leading industry voices called to back him after his remarks, which generated a great deal of enthusiasm among the crypto community on X and some media conjecture that the former president may have just won a whole industry’s worth of votes come November.
Political Activities of the Crypto Industry
Determining to have a say in the election, the cryptocurrency sector has contributed over $100 million to so-called super PACs, with significant contributions from prominent companies like Ripple and Coinbase.
With just six months to November, individual donations to pro-crypto candidates like Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno and Massachusetts Senate candidate John Deaton are also increasing.
Rocky Relationship of Biden with Crypto
While in office, President Biden has frequently infuriated the vocal cryptocurrency community.
It is in large part because of his Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, who has brought numerous enforcement actions against some of the largest firms in the industry, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who has bragged about creating an “anti-crypto army.”
While Congress tries to adopt bipartisan legislation that would resolve the issue, the SEC and the CFTC have fought under Biden over who should have control over the $2 trillion crypto business.
In the meantime, the sector has been attempting to get clarification from different courts, where judges disagree on whether digital assets can be treated as securities or commodities.
The end effect has been a rise in hostility among cryptocurrency users who believe the federal government is attempting to suppress their means of subsistence.
After Trump made his comments, well-known cryptocurrency millionaires like Cardano and Ethereum founder Charles Hoskinson took to social media to warn that a Biden victory in November would be much more detrimental to the sector, in line with what ETHNews previously disclosed.
Giancarlo on the Good Things Trump Has Done
Giancarlo, on the other hand, contends that by preserving the dollar’s reserve currency status, the Trump administration’s approval of bitcoin futures contracts has strengthened the dollar.
He notes that cryptocurrency is “not going away” and that bitcoin, which is currently valued over $60,000, just overtook the Swiss franc as the world’s thirteenth largest currency.