Trump Courts Crypto Cash as Bitcoin Enthusiasts Unite Behind His Bid for the White House

Many of the nation's leading cryptocurrency companies, executives, investors and fanatics are beginning to unite around former president Donald Trump's bid for the White House

As the 2024 presidential election heats up, Republican candidate Donald Trump is courting the cryptocurrency industry with promises of favorable policies, while Democrats are seeking to avoid alienating the sector amid a heavy-handed regulatory crackdown by the Biden administration.

Many leading crypto companies, executives, and investors are rallying behind Trump, hoping that his presidency will spare the industry from federal regulation. Under President Biden, the U.S. government has aggressively cracked down on crypto, seeking to protect average Americans from scams and ensure the largely anonymous tokens do not enable illicit activities. But the fierce oversight has chafed crypto advocates and angered wealthy political benefactors in Silicon Valley. To ward off new federal probes, environmental protections, and financial safeguards, they have gravitated toward Trump — even if they don’t always like him — in the hopes he can win and deliver them relief in Washington.

“I think what people are excited about is, if Trump comes in with a new circle, and Cabinet members, and people, that it’s going to change, and change for the better,” said Marshall Beard, the chief operating officer at Gemini, a crypto trading platform and banking service. He described himself as apolitical, but his company’s founders, billionaire investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, have donated heavily in support of Trump.

Trump has gladly accepted the entreaties: Newly awash in crypto cash, he has celebrated bitcoin and other digital tokens, marking a stunning shift from his time in office, when Trump proclaimed he was “not a fan” of bitcoin and linked such assets to drug sales. The early uptick in fundraising support has troubled some Democrats, who have scrambled to show they are not hostile to the industry.

But Trump’s conversion will be on stark display Saturday, when he speaks directly to the thousands of bitcoin owners, traders, and investors who have descended this year on Nashville. Many in attendance expect the former president to announce he wants the U.S. government to stockpile its own reserves of the currency, a radical idea that is bound to send the price of bitcoin skyrocketing — just hours after Trump holds a high-dollar fundraiser with the nation’s crypto elite.

Even before Trump arrived, there were hints of his growing support across the sprawling Music City Center, the site of this year’s bitcoin Conference. A smattering of “Make bitcoin Great Again” hats — some in Trump’s signature style, others in bitcoin orange — dotted the rows of booths where crypto entrepreneurs hawked new tokens, investing tips, and “tax avoidance strategies,” in the words of one firm, which parked near its kiosk a ruby-red motorcycle adorned with the play on Trump’s slogan. (Staff there declined to be interviewed.)

Outside, a digital sign truck periodically circled, flashing photos of Trump and his new running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), a longtime crypto advocate who has reported owning as much as $250,000 in bitcoin. The vehicle pitched passersby on “MAGA VP,” a type of “memecoin” — unaffiliated with the campaign — that aims to help the former president’s most fervent supporters earn money. It teased that customers who purchased $50 of the token would “win a special prize.”

“At this party, today, it seems like there’s a leaning toward Trump, and I think it’s an appreciation for the first major presidential candidate to come along and say this might be actually a really good idea,” said Mike Belshe, the chief executive of BitGo, which offers a crypto wallet service. He plans to host a fundraiser reception for Vance in Palo Alto, Calif., next week, according to an invite later obtained by The Washington Post.

The support for Trump underscored the rapid political awakening underway in the crypto industry. Stung by a series of major scandals — and facing the prospect of tough regulation in Washington — crypto companies, executives, and investors have shelled out $121 million this election in a bid to defeat potential foes and elect new friends in Washington, according to the money-in-politics watchdog OpenSecrets.

“We’ve seen tens of millions of dollars pouring in, in an attempt to make sure anti-regulation politicians are the ones who take power,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, a left-leaning watchdog group.

For many crypto titans, the catalyst for action came two years ago, after the downfall of FTX, previously the world’s third-largest crypto marketplace. Many Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), immediately demanded stringent new rules, while the Securities and Exchange Commission, led by Chairman Gary Gensler, filed a battery of lawsuits alleging the best-known crypto firms had failed to follow basic federal investor protections.

Often, the targets of SEC scrutiny — including Coinbase, a digital asset marketplace, and Ripple, which offers the popular XRP token — blasted the cases as evidence of Gensler’s bias against the industry. They coupled their court battles with an