Former US President Donald Trump softened his stance on Bitcoin at a town hall event in South Carolina this week.
Speaking to Fox News ahead of the state's Republican primary, Trump said that “a lot of people are accepting bitcoin” and that he is “seeing people who want to pay.” [with] Bitcoin” and that it can “coexist in one way or another”.
It's a warm embrace, but the Republican front-runner's stance on cryptocurrency has been much stronger in the past. In the year In 2019, while still in office, Trump was “not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” saying they “aren't money” and that their value is based on “thin air.”
Since then, he has either personally started or, depending on his and his political career, crypto projects. A lot of attention has been paid to the wallet associated with the former POTUS.
Under Trump, the SEC's preferred method of issuing guidance appears to be through multiple enforcement actions and warnings that BTC sales violate securities laws. At the time, the SEC also pushed back on Bitcoin ETFs, causing many companies to withdraw their proposals.
It follows Trump's recent comments about his plans to regulate the cryptocurrency market. ” picked up [on] His own life, “the former president. “Maybe you should make some rules.”
A large part of Trump's stance on cryptocurrency has surrounded the dollar's upside. In the year In 2021, Trump said Bitcoin “looks like a scam.”
“I want the dollar to be the world's currency – that's what I've always said,” he added.
This easing of the trend on Bitcoin does not mean that it has weakened its position on the dollar. Trump told Fox News this week, “I've always liked one thing… “I've always liked one very powerful thing. And, it's called a dollar.”
Meanwhile, during Joe Biden's tenure, the White House released “the first comprehensive framework to advance the responsibility of digital assets.” The president's executive order has told government agencies to redouble their efforts to identify loopholes in crypto regulation, citing the potential for abuse of cryptocurrencies.
When it comes to crypto, Biden seems to be more hands-on. This includes trying to close the crypto tax loophole, pushing to introduce a 30% tax on crypto mining operations (which was ultimately blocked), and releasing a fiery report calling it “ignorance of basic economic principles.”
That said, more recently, we've seen the SEC consider Bitcoin spot ETFs and the Biden X tag as relevant to the Biden meme—though that's probably not a crypto, but a sports-related meme.
Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Trump appears to be trying to present himself as a candidate with a soft stance on Bitcoin.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
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