During his campaign, Trump did his best to court their favor. In July, speaking to thousands of bitcoiners at a conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump duly sang from the bitcoin hymn sheet, promising to establish the US as the top power in bitcoin mining, create a national “bitcoin reserve” and appoint a consultant for bitcoin council if re-elected. Trump has said he will make the US the “crypto capital of the planet.”
In October, Trump went so far as to launch his own crypto platform, World Liberty Financial, which his family touted as a way to “make finance great again.” The platform is set to provide peer-to-peer lending and borrowing services with some flair, though the Trumps have provided few hard details.
“If you were a one-question voter interested in the growth of stable money through Bitcoin, Trump was the clear choice,” says Peter McCormack, host of the podcast What did Bitcoin do?.
In contrast, Harris’ 2024 Democratic platform. does not include any mention of crypto, and she made only one mention of crypto in the campaign, at a presentation to donors in New York, Bloomberg reported. “We will promote innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital assets, while protecting consumers and investors. We will create a safe business environment with consistent and transparent traffic rules,” Harris quoted.
The reticence in the Harris camp to take a public stance on crypto has been interpreted by industry members as a signal that her presidency will represent a continuation of the bad old days under Biden. “We saw no evidence that she was going to soften her position at all,” Carter says.
Democrat-supporting members of the crypto industry were left in an awkward position; although they subscribed to Harris’ policies, it was possible that a Trump victory would be a more favorable outcome for the sector. “As a crypto entrepreneur, I’m excited about the prospect of a bull market,” said Jonathan Padilla, one of the organizers of Crypto4Harris, a coalition of left-leaning members of the crypto industry. “For crypto in isolation, Trump is probably going to be the much faster sugar rush,” Padilla says, even if the president later loses interest.
