US Presidential candidate Donald Trump came out in support of cryptocurrency during a special event for Trump NFT holders at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida late Wednesday.
The embattled former U.S. President and 2024 hopeful lamented that crypto companies are fleeing America.
“Crypto is moving out of the U.S. because of hostility towards crypto,” Trump said. “We’ll stop it because I don’t want that—if we’re going to embrace it, we have to let them be here.”
Taking questions from the crypto-savvy crowd, Trump said he would welcome campaign donations in Bitcoin and other tokens.
Trump’s shifting views toward digital assets comes as analysts suggested on Tuesday that his winning the U.S. Presidential election in November would be good for Bitcoin. And he went after the incumbent, claiming Pres. Joe Biden is ignorant about crypto.
“Biden doesn’t know,” Trump told the crowd, also taking aim at the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“[Gary] Gensler is very much against it, the Democrats are very much against it,” Trump said. “But I’m good with it.”
Ron Hammond, government relations director at the Blockchain Association, drew a link between the Mar-a-Lago event and the passage of a resolution in the U.S. House condemning the SEC’s policy on crypto banking.
“I didn’t think crypto would be an election issue, but today’s polar opposite statements proved that,” he tweeted. “Twenty one Democrats today voted against their own party realizing the trend: it’s a losing issue to be in the anti-crypto army.”
In April, prices for Solana-based meme coins featuring caricatures of Trump and Biden surged, according to blockchain data from DexScreener. At one point, “Jeo Boden” and “Doland Tremp” had a market capitalization of $473 million and $83 million, respectively.
Hearing that a token that pokes fun of Joe Biden was worth $240 million, Trump said: “That’s a lot of money for a coin, I don’t like that investment.”
Tonight’s event was billed as an “extraordinary dinner held at the President’s home in Palm Beach, Florida,” a perk of buying a Trump NFT.
“President Donald Trump will host an extraordinary evening for some very special Trump Trading Card holders,” the official website touted. “Dubbed the Winter White House, you’ll enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience at the president’s historic residence and exclusive members only club.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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