Donald Trump says his campaign will embrace cryptocurrency
Former US President Donald Trump, who is currently facing criminal charges in four jurisdictions in the US, announced that he will allow cryptocurrency donations to his campaign for his 2024 presidential run.
In a May 21 notice, the Trump 2024 campaign said it had launched a fundraising page where eligible people can donate in cryptocurrency using the Coinbase Commerce product. This website contains the logos of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), XRP, USD Coin (USDC), Solana (SOL), and 0x (ZRX). there is. The announcement cited Senator Elizabeth Warren’s attacks on cryptocurrencies, claiming without evidence that she was acting as U.S. President Joe Biden’s “official representative” in Congress.
At a dinner for supporters who purchased non-fungible tokens featuring his mugshot when he surrendered from a Georgia prison on May 8, President Trump said he would ensure attendees would be able to donate to his campaign in cryptocurrency. With less than six months until Election Day, Trump has become the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for U.S. president in 2024. Trump is likely to face off against President Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
On May 15, Trump responded to President Biden’s challenge by agreeing to meet on June 27 and September 10 for televised debates on CNN and ABC, respectively. Although terms have not yet been confirmed, this debate could be the first time the two candidates face off head-to-head since 2020, when Trump lost to Biden.
Despite accepting cryptocurrency donations, Trump’s campaign website ‘issues’ page did not specifically mention digital assets or blockchain at the time of publication. President Biden has made few public statements about cryptocurrencies, but he signed an executive order to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets in 2022.
Related: Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump are cryptocurrency champions
Trump’s cryptocurrency donation announcement comes as the jury prepares to deliberate in his New York criminal trial scheduled for next week. The former president had to appear in person in a Manhattan courtroom on charges of falsifying business documents to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to her. He has also been indicted in Georgia and the District of Columbia on charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results, and in Florida on charges of mishandling classified documents.
After leaving office in 2021, Trump said Bitcoin “looks like a scam” and favored the US dollar becoming “the currency of the world.” But before Trump became the Republican nominee, digital asset policy occasionally took center stage, with his rivals Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis making statements about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Trump said at a January 2024 campaign event that he would never allow a CBDC to be established in the United States.
Cryptocurrency donations are reportedly helping Trump-supporting political action committees (PACs) cover the costs of some criminal and civil lawsuits.
In February, a judge ordered Trump and his company to recover $355 million and found them guilty of fraud. In January, a New York judge ordered the former president to pay more than $83 million in connection with a defamation lawsuit filed by author E. Jean Carroll. In May 2023, a jury also found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation charges against Carroll and ordered him to pay $5 million in damages.
magazine: Ethereum’s ERC-20 design flaw is a cryptocurrency fraudster’s best friend.
