NASHVILLE — Former President Donald Trump and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are trying to garner votes from the crypto community at a major event this week, the 2024 Bitcoin Conference, while Vice President Kamala Harris is trying to catch up by trying to learn more about cryptocurrencies.
Many bitcoin supporters hope that Bitcoin’s popularity as an alternative currency to the U.S. dollar will grow and mining will expand in the U.S. Some say that greater reliance on bitcoin will help tame inflation.
It’s a relatively niche issue compared with the economy and border crisis that are the focus of the campaign, but it could play a big role in determining how some people vote and donate.
Nick Smith, a 27-year-old commodities trader voting in the battleground state of North Carolina, said Trump has so far taken the best stance on cryptocurrency policy of any current candidate.
“I didn’t vote for him in 2016 or 2020, but if I were to vote now based solely on bitcoin and cryptocurrency policy, I would vote for Trump,” Smith told The Post.
“At the very least, his campaign appears to have made an effort to push the classic straw man theory that Bitcoin is money laundering,” he added. Bloomberg President Trump reportedly met with bitcoin miners at his Florida home in June.
“I hope this helps ordinary Americans realize that bitcoin mining is not boiling the ocean. There are ways to incentivize low-cost energy using renewable solar, hydro and other means to produce bitcoin,” Smith added.
The Post reported that Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who Trump nominated as his running mate, is popular in the Bitcoin community. Trump is a cryptocurrency supporter and called himself the “cryptocurrency candidate” in May, but has previously called cryptocurrencies a “scam.”
Kennedy also seemed buoyed by the conference, with several people handing out pamphlets in support of the third-party candidate, who is scheduled to address attendees later Friday afternoon.
“I think Kennedy has a different perspective, that he’s committed to bridging the gap between the two parties, rather than just dividing them into our side and their side,” Doug Sako, who was handing out pro-Kennedy pamphlets outside Music City Center, told The Post.
“There are people who want freedom from being scalped, freedom from being shorn like a sheep,” Andrew Beck, a consultant attending the conference, said of bitcoin’s popularity. NBC Poll It turns out that 21% of Americans own some form of cryptocurrency.
Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn and Cynthia Lummis, as well as former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswami, are also staunch Bitcoin supporters and are scheduled to speak at the premier cryptocurrency conference.
Harris, who launched her campaign after Biden dropped out of the election, did not speak at the event, but businessman Mark Cuban said her campaign had asked her about the matter. quartz report.
