In an interview with cryptocurrency sister company Rag Radio, days after announcing the launch of World Freedom Financial's decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, former US President Donald Trump bought a bitcoin burger during a stop at PubKey Bitcoin Bar in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Bitcoin backers at the bar helped Trump through the process, which included scanning a QR code with a smartphone and then approving the transaction. After we were unsure if the deal had gone through, one of Trump's aides said, “Oh, it's done!”
During a stop at a bitcoin-themed bar in New York, Trump expressed his hope that the Republican Party will win New York in the upcoming US election.
“It's a great place, I made my first transaction in Bitcoin,” Trump said to cheers from the crowd. “Every crypto thief – crypto maniac as I call them, they really are – they believe.
“Get out and vote, because if you vote, we can't lose,” Trump said. “They've been looking at you so bad in the SEC and we're going to treat you so fair, because you've got to get out and vote.”
On Monday, Trump's Vice President Kamala Harris warned that crypto startups would “live in hell” under the scrutiny of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) if they won in November.
“If we don't win the election, there will be people who were under investigation and are now free as birds” and people who have not looked into the crypto world. Hell – because if they win, it starts the day after the election.
Cryptocurrency has become a political issue in Washington Trump, a former Bitcoin skeptic, has reinvented himself as a crypto champion. Trump has launched several NFT clusters on Ethereum blockchain network Polygon, praising the Republican presidential candidate's change of heart on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin is traditionally considered a better store of value than making everyday payments — and some crypto Twitter commenters took a shot at Trump asking him to pay with BTC in the real world.
Trump pointed out how easy it is to use Bitcoin to buy burgers.
“It's the beginning of a new era,” Trump said. “What they've done in such a short period of time is incredible, and you look at the values and the kind of numbers you're talking about, more than any of the biggest corporations in the world, many of them put together.” So that's one thing.
Edited by Andrew Hayward.
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