NASHVILLE — Former President Donald Trump and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are courting the votes of the crypto community at its premier event, the 2024 Bitcoin Conference, this week — as Vice President Kamala Harris plays catchup by trying to learn more about cryptocurrency.
Many Bitcoin proponents want to see more support for the currency as an alternative to the US dollar and expanded mining within America. Some say an increased reliance on Bitcoin could help keep inflation at bay.
Although it’s a relatively niche issue compared with the economy and the border crisis on the campaign trail, it could play a big role in deciding how some people vote — and donate.
Nick Smith, a 27-year-old commodity trader who’s voting in North Carolina, a swing state, said Trump has had the best stance so far on cryptocurrency policy of the current candidates.
“I didn’t vote for him before in ’16 or ’20, but if I’m just voting based on Bitcoin and crypto policy right now, I think it’d have to be Trump,” Smith told The Post.
“His campaign has at least seemed to do the work to push through the fluff of the classic kind of straw-man arguments that Bitcoin is money laundering,” he added. Bloomberg reported Trump met with Bitcoin miners at his Florida estate in June.
“I think that hopefully opened the eyes of the common American to see that Bitcoin mining isn’t boiling the oceans. There are ways to use renewable solar, hydro, and other means to incentivize low-cost energy to produce Bitcoin,” Smith added.
The Post reported Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, is a popular choice in the Bitcoin world. Although Trump is pro-cryptocurrency — calling himself a “crypto candidate” in May — he once dubbed it a “scam.”
Kennedy also appears to have some momentum at the conference, where several people handed out pamphlets in support of the third-party pick, who will address attendees late Friday afternoon.
“I think Mr. Kennedy’s got an alternative view that is all about bridging the gap between the two parties versus just having our side and their side,” Doug Sako, who was outside the Music City Center handing out pro-Kennedy literature, told The Post.
“There’s people who want freedom from being scalped. Freedom from being sheared like sheep,” Andrew Beck, a consultant who’s attending the conference, said about the popularity behind Bitcoin. A 2022 NBC poll found 21% of Americans owned some kind of cryptocurrency.
Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Cynthia Lummis and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy are also vocal Bitcoin supporters expected to speak at the premier crypto conference.
Harris, at the jumpstart of her campaign following President Biden’s withdrawal from the race, will not be speaking here, but businessman Mark Cuban said her campaign reached out to him with questions on the topic, Quartz reported.
