The blockchain industry is trying to decipher whether they can trust their new supposed ally.\n<\/p>\n
Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump has taken a U-turn on his crypto stance.<\/p>\n
Just three years ago, Trump called Bitcoin a \u201cscam<\/a>,\u201d and last week the former president embraced cryptocurrency donations, claims he would commute the sentence to the creator of Bitcoin marketplace Ross Ulbricht, and said under his leadership, he wouldn\u2019t let cryptocurrency builders leave the country.<\/p>\n \u201cOur country must be the leader in the field, there is no second place,\u201d Trump said in a May 25 post <\/a>on Truth Social. \u201cI am very positive and open minded to cryptocurrency companies and all things related to this new and burgeoning industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The sudden change from Trump has some in the crypto industry wondering whether they can trust the former president to follow through if he makes it to the White House. Others wonder whether they should overlook any of the qualms they may have and back him just because of his pro-crypto stance.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a confluence of factors over the years, but the gradually-then-suddenly moment took place on May 8, during a Mar-a-Lago gala dinner for supporters who purchased his NFT collection featuring his mugshot from his Georgia jail surrender.<\/p>\n Malcolm Casta\u00f1eda, Chief of Staff for NFT project, DeGods<\/a> who was present at the event, probed<\/a> Trump.<\/p>\n Casta\u00f1eda explains that the company he works at has been advising the Trump team that oversees his NFT collections, and that DeGods were invited to participate at the Mar-a-Lago event.<\/p>\n He told The Defiant that they went prepared to publicly ask what the former president was planning to do in light of the hostility the crypto industry has received from top government officials, including Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the smartest people in crypto are leaving the country due to U.S. regulations,\u201d said Casta\u00f1eda, who proceeded to ask Trump what he would do to stem the brain drain.<\/p>\n Trump said his government will stop the hostility that the industry has experienced from the current administration, although he didn\u2019t elaborate on the details.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to embrace them if we want them to say,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n This sudden shift in tone has experts wondering.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump is going all in for these voters \u2014 he has promised to roll out the red carpet for the crypto industry in the U.S. and release jailed crypto programmers,\u201d political commentator Rajgopal Menon, Vice-President, WazirX crypto exchange told The Defiant. \u201cThis has set the cat among the pigeons as evidenced by the hasty approval of the Ethereum ETFs. No politician can hope to get elected after antagonizing the crypto voter,\u201d<\/p>\n But others, like Adam Cochran, partner at Cinneamhain Ventures, shared <\/a>strong reservations about Trump’s pro-crypto stance.<\/p>\n “Just like Biden, Trump was previously anti-crypto and is pandering to get votes,\u201d he said. “Trump isn\u2019t someone to honor his transactions.”<\/p>\n Meanwhile, others aren\u2019t surprised by the shift in views.<\/p>\n Jonathan Thomas, CEO and co-founder of Blueberry Protocol is one of them.<\/p>\n \u201cCrypto has increased its presence between the last and current presidential elections, from the FTX collapse to ETF approvals,\u201d he told The Defiant. \u201cCandidates like Trump are looking to gain every vote they can, and crypto has become important to earn.”<\/p>\n And as there are some that saw the scenario playing it out as it is now, optimists abound.<\/p>\n For crypto lawyer James Murphy, also known as \u201cMetaLawMan, Trump\u2019s possible victory in the upcoming November elections could lead to the dismissal of several SEC crypto lawsuits.<\/p>\n Murphy anticipates <\/a>“a very different SEC” based on Trump\u2019s recent crypto-friendly statements. \u201cI could imagine voluntary dismissals of crypto cases the [SEC Chair] Gary Gensler regime has initiated where there was no fraud and no victims.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump joins the ranks of presidential hopefuls Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Rand Paul, and Andrew Yang, all of whom have embraced cryptocurrency contributions for their campaigns. The donation page for Trump\u2019s 2024 campaign prominently displays logos for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), XRP, USD Coin (USDC), Solana (SOL), and 0x (ZRX).<\/p>\n Trump is not just embracing crypto; his own holdings have surged as well. On-chain data shows Trump’s crypto asset portfolio briefly surpassed <\/a>$10 million on Monday.<\/p>\n Another big reason for Trump to support crypto close to the election, as per experts, is to use Biden’s perceived anti-crypto stance to his favor.<\/p>\n The Biden administration, through the SEC, has been tough on the crypto industry.<\/p>\n In March 2022, Biden issued <\/a>an executive order for comprehensive crypto regulation and exploring a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC).<\/p>\n Biden also proposed a 30% tax on electricity used by crypto miners, citing environmental concerns. Historically, his administration has been wary of unregulated cryptocurrencies due to risks like money laundering and fraud.<\/p>\n And the SEC has been relentlessly pursuing a regulation-by-enforcement agenda against crypto. The agency recently threatened to sue<\/a> decentralized exchange Uniswap, and last year in June, the SEC went against Coinbase<\/a> and Binance, charging both firms with violating U.S. securities laws.<\/p>\n Authorities also took aim at several crypto projects, labeling a number of tokens such as Solana and Cardano, unregistered securities.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s campaign criticized Senator Elizabeth Warren, labeling her a “Biden surrogate” and accusing her of forming an “anti-crypto army” to limit Americans’ financial freedoms. In response, the campaign vowed that MAGA supporters would form a “crypto army” to secure a victory on November 5.<\/p>\n Notably, the shift in Trump\u2019s views has also triggered a 180 from Democrats.<\/p>\n Two crypto bills, H.J. Res. 109 and the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), have garnered bipartisan support, indicating a shift in legislative attitudes towards cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n The House has made a move by passing FIT21 legislation with a 279-136 vote to establish a regulatory framework specifically designed for cryptocurrency. This marks the first instance where either chamber of Congress has undertaken such a step.<\/p>\n Dozens of Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have parted ways with Elizabeth Warren\u2019s anti-cryptocurrency stance in recent days.<\/p>\n This bipartisan move was driven by a mix of crypto advocacy, bank lobbying, and frustration with the SEC under Gensler.<\/p>\n Schumer said in a statement, \u201cNew York State already has a strong law on the books, and they weren\u2019t consulted on this regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas noted that both parties are going to do what they can to appease crypto voters. \u201cIt will likely be a competition of who can outdo the other to push crypto regulation forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Trump’s decision to welcome cryptocurrency comes amid ongoing legal challenges.<\/p>\n He faces 88 criminal charges across four cases \u2014 two in federal courts and two in state courts. Trump denies any wrongdoing in all cases. In Manhattan, Trump is under scrutiny for allegedly falsifying business records stemming from a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in Georgia and the District of Columbia, he faces allegations of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results.<\/p>\n Even with the turn of events on both sides of the political aisle, some are pushing back against Trump’s allegedly pro-crypto agenda. Molly Jane Zuckerman, editor of op-eds at Blockworks, wrote a warning<\/a> to single-issue voters, like the crypto enthusiasts that are now star-gazed at the former president\u2019s backing of the industry, and avoid getting blindsided by his most recent words.<\/p>\n Trump has edged ahead in several polls. On Polymarket<\/a>, 56% of traders are betting he wins the election versus Biden\u2019s 37%, and on PredictIt<\/a>, Trump also leads the race. On opinion polling website 538<\/a>, Trump also is ahead, although with a much tighter margin, with 41.3% of voter preferences versus Biden\u2019s 39.9%.<\/p>\n Maybe part of Trumps\u2019 lead reflects that crypto enthusiasts are willing to take their chances.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The blockchain industry is trying to decipher whether they can trust their new supposed ally. Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump has taken a U-turn on his crypto stance. Just three years ago, Trump called Bitcoin a \u201cscam,\u201d and last week the former president embraced cryptocurrency donations, claims he would commute the sentence to the creator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[274,273,272,244,266,271,268,270,269,267],"class_list":["post-311955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-de-fi","tag-crypto-finance","tag-decentralized-finance","tag-liquidity","tag-metamask","tag-pancake","tag-slippage","tag-sushiswap","tag-tronlink","tag-trust-wallet","tag-uniswap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311955"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":311963,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311955\/revisions\/311963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sudden Shift<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Does Trump Mean It?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Potential Scenarios<\/strong><\/h2>\n
A Push Against Biden<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Bipartisan Support <\/strong><\/h2>\n
Legal Challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n