On Saturday, former US President Donald Trump promised Bitcoin Conference attendees in Tennessee to make the country crypto-friendly and establish the US as the “crypto capital of the planet” if he comes to power for a second term.
Making a total reverse on his previous views about crypto currencies, whose value he used to believe was “highly volatile and based on thin air,” Trump now wants the US to become a “Bitcoin superpower” and create a “strategic national Bitcoin stockpile.”
The Associated Press observes that Trump’s crypto remarks came a day after independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed the conference and also pitched launching a strategic bitcoin reserve.
Following Trump’s speech at the same event, US Senator Cynthia Lummis announced that she will soon be introducing a bill that would “supercharge the dollar” by directing the US Treasury to acquire one million bitcoins.
Donald Trump’s crypto-friendly policy under his leadership
In his most famous quotes about crypto so far, Trump during his term as US President had called Bitcoin “not money,” “scam,” and “a disaster waiting to happen.”
However, in recent months he started to change his views for the crypto, and became the first nominee to accept Bitcoin donations. According to the CNN, he has collected about 4 million US dollar worth.
In his keynote address at the Nashville, Tennessee, Bitcoin Confrence, the Republican nominee covered his usual wide range of topics from energy policy to inflation, connecting them all to the future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in the US.
Trump pledged to end the current administration’s “anti-crypto crusade,” fire the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, create a Presidential Crypto Advisory Council, and keep all government-held Bitcoin.
“We will have regulations, but from now on the rules will be written by people who love your industry, not hate your industry,” Trump stated, adding that “if crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA.”
Republican Senator announces Bitcoin reserve bill
Tennessee’s US Senator Marsha Blackburn called Trump’s announcement of a bitcoin strategic reserve a “historic moment.”
Shortly after Trump’s speech, at the same conference, Republican US Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming announced “a revolutionary proposal to supercharge the U.S. dollar by establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve to fortify the dollar against rising inflation and cement U.S. leadership in the rapidly evolving global financial system.”
This strategic Bitcoin reserve would be required to hold onto the Bitcoin for 20 years, and the only thing it would be good for during that time period would be paying down the country’s national debt.
The bill is expected to be introduced in the coming days with additional co-sponsors to be announced.