What Trump’s Speech Means For Bitcoin

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com.

At the Bitcoin Conference this week, former President Trump delivered a keynote address meant to win over the increasingly important bloc of voters concerned about bitcoin. These voters see bitcoin as a means to advancing the cause of liberty in the U.S., and worldwide. They see bitcoin as a key component of the coming period of re-industrialization, where bitcoin mining is combined with an energy production renaissance and parabolic demand for AI computation.

President Trump gave a stump speech that hit on many themes that those following his campaign will recognize. However, he also made several concrete statements aimed at winning the bitcoin vote.

First, he established his bona fides in a room full of bitcoin experts, economists, technology innovators, and human rights activists by pointing out that bitcoin is currently the 9th largest asset in the world by market capitalization, and is likely to overtake gold one day.

This wasn’t news to bitcoiners, but this message will now be heard by many conservatives who have a natural affinity for gold and defer to Trump’s instincts, which is likely to open more minds to bitcoin and drive its adoption.

Trump also credited bitcoiners for their awareness of the dangers of inflation, calling it a “country buster” that took Germany down a very dark path a century ago. He stated that, contrary to those who believe bitcoin is a threat to the dollar, he believes that it is Washington D.C. that threatens the dollar system.

Perhaps most significant was the pronouncement that any bitcoin that the federal government possesses will not be sold and instead be held as part of a “stockpile.” Although he fell short of stating that the U.S. Treasury would actively purchase bitcoin, the creation of a strategic bitcoin stockpile with bitcoin already in possession of the government is the key first step that can lead to future debates about how much bitcoin the government should hold.

(In fact, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis has already, since Trump’s speech, announced that she will be introducing a bill that would direct the U.S. Treasury to acquire one million bitcoins.)

What all this means is that the U.S. may lead the next industrial revolution after all, with a significant portion of the bitcoin industry concentrated within its borders. With Trump’s statement today that he supports the private property rights of individual bitcoin holders, the slander that bitcoin is for criminals is officially outmoded.

Regardless of whether any particular politician likes or understands bitcoin, if the bitcoin industry is allowed to grow in the U.S., the values of transparency, sovereignty, and freedom that are literally embedded in bitcoin’s open-source codebase will have a place to continue to flourish. The result for the United States will be a strengthening of our economy and our society at large.