Donald Trump gave the keynote speech at this weekend’s big Bitcoin conference in Nashville yesterday. It was a one hour quasi rally speech incorporating some very true things about the way Democrats have treated the crypto industry.

Regulators from the traditional financial oversight agencies have attempted to choke it off, demonize its proponents and basically ostracize it from polite society and any sort of legitimate on-ramps. They view innovations in the space as extra-legal attempts to make an end-run around established securities laws. They view their role as crypto antagonists as being necessary to protect ordinary investors who might otherwise have their money stolen from them.

The thing is, no one really cares. This animosity toward the asset class has not helped them in any way, shape or form. You don’t get elected or reelected for being hostile to crypto. You don’t raise money. You don’t win points on Twitter. You don’t get featured in primetime on the cable news networks. “Tough on Bitcoin” is a loser position. Everyone gets this now.

As I mentioned earlier this summer, there is no anti-crypto constituency outside of some lawyers and regulators inside the Beltway. Literally no one else cares. They may not trust crypto currencies or want to be involved with them, but they certainly do not get animated by their existence or start writing checks to the politicians who want to eradicate the space.

All of the energy is on the other side. The pro-crypto people are super animated about it. They’ve filled the coffers of SuperPACs like “Fair Shake” with over $200 million. Some of the wealthiest, most successful venture capitalists and asset management execs are now vocally and aggressively pro-crypto. They will support candidates for office nationwide who come out as crypto-friendly with donations, events, energy, snark on social media, etc. It’s good to be a crypto candidate these days. All of the money and momentum is going in one direction.

The Bitcoin President

Donald Trump told an audience of the crypto faithful, including “Bitcoin legends” Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss (Gemini), Ron and Rand Paul (Libertarian icons), Kid Rock (the Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp), Howard Lutnick (Cantor Fitzgerald) and Michael Saylor (Microstrategy), that he will be the Bitcoin President. That the persecution of these freedom-loving entrepreneurs is over and that the crypto agenda is now officially a part of Make America Great Again.

He told the audience that if it weren’t for him, they would all be “gone” which I assume means in exile or in prison. He said Elizabeth Warren and the rest of the finance-focused Democrats “hate you people” and that if Trump is gone, they will be “vicious” in going after them again. He said the only reason the crypto crowd is now being left alone by the Democrats and their army of regulators is that they are afraid to mess with friends of Trump. He reminds the crowd that he is the first US presidential candidate to accept donations in Bitcoin.

Trump also said the federal government is currently in possession of 210,000 Bitcoins, mostly confiscated during the busting of scams and criminal activity, and that Donald Trump’s policy will be to hold them forever - in keeping with the “never sell” ethos of the asset’s admirers. Further, he will use these 210,000 BTC, which comprise “one percent of all the Bitcoin that will ever be harvested”, as the beginning of the National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

But the thing he said that got the loudest applause was that when Trump becomes president again, Gary Gensler will be fired from the SEC “on day one.” A standing ovation and the loudest roar of the entire speech. Crypto people may not agree with everything Trump has to say - they may even be registered as Democrats - but this is the one thing they all seem to agree upon.

It’s hard to believe that there might be a few million voters whose singular issue in the upcoming election is the defenestration of the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, but it might actually be true. Young men in their 20’s and 30’s from all walks of life and regions of the country are incredibly passionate about their right to buy, sell, create and hold digital assets. They are ready to campaign and spread the word, they are ready to send cash and they are ready to vote. Trump doesn’t need to understand what Bitcoin is. He doesn’t need to know a single thing about the technology (he literally said “staplecoins” during his speech). All he needs to understand is that he can pick up this constituency at no political cost whatsoever (again, no one is anti) and gain a newly wealthy, extremely vocal, highly engaged chorus on the internet.

You can watch his full remarks below:

Kamala Strikes Back?

Not surprisingly, Kamala Harris’s people are now scrambling to build a progressive vision for crypto and to find Democratic (or anti-Trump) voices who are influential in the space. They will. Anthony Scaramucci is just sitting there waiting to be tapped. The only thing he is more passionate about than Bitcoin is defeating his former boss. Don’t believe me? Just turn on the television, any channel, any day. Mark Cuban is also ready to embrace the role of Kamala’s crypto ambassador, I would imagine. There will be others.

The Financial Times reported on this yesterday:

It would be fun to hear the conversation between the Ripple people and the Harris people considering the relentlessness with which Biden’s SEC has pursued them these past three and a half years. It’s been a practically Les Miserables-esque chase through the streets and fields with Ripple founder Brad Garlinghouse in the Jean Valjean role and Monsieur Gensler as Inspector Javert.

Kamala Harris has campaigned enough during her time in San Francisco-area politics to understand the power and wealth that technology industry people can employ - either on her behalf or against her. She’s no fool. I would tell you to expect the result of this outreach to hit later this summer. Maybe a dinner, maybe a campaign event, possibly a visit to a convention. No matter what, you’re going to end up hearing pro-crypto rhetoric from the Democrats, led by their candidate for the presidency.

I expect the result of this bipartisan support for the industry to result in higher prices for BTC and potentially ETH. The floodgates are about to be flung wide open. BlackRock’s Larry Fink is positioned accordingly, are you?

The Compound and Friends

Speaking of ETH, we were very fortunate in the timing of our TCAF podcast this week, with Matt Hougan of Bitwise Investments joining us to talk about his firm’s incredible success in bringing crypto ETFs to market.

Matt and his team have spent years in the trenches battling it out to get these things listed. Bitwise has one of the largest Bitcoin ETFs on the market today, a suite of separately managed accounts (SMAs) at the major custodians who cater to wealthy managers and now, as of Tuesday, he’s got one of the first products designed to track the spot price of Ether, crypto’s second largest coin by market capitalization.

What makes Matt Hougan such an important voice right now is that he is a bridge between the realms of traditional finance and crypto. Matt was one of the founders of Inside ETFs, one of the largest investing conferences ever and was involved with ETF.com. He saw the rise of digital assets as being along the same lines as the ETF revolution he helped to bring about and he decided to do something about it. The success of Bitwise is a testament to both his vision and his perseverance.

I want you make time for this conversation we had with Matt because he’s such a calm and down to earth voice of reason for this space. He’s been right about a lot of things we’ve seen so far and he never speaks hyperbolically or fatalistically about the topic. He’s not on Twitter picking fights. He’s not lobbing grenades at people who disagree with him from conference stages. He’s just determinedly building sound, sane asset management products that investors can use.

You can access all podcast platforms below or watch it on YouTube:

That’s it from me today! Have an awesome weekend, talk soon. - Josh