Former president Donald Trump addressed the Bitcoin 2024 conference, saying he would end the 'persecution' of their industry. Photograph: Doug Mills/The New York TimesAnd even though he has already indicated his intent to claim the title, would it even be Donald Trump?
Trump’s announcement of Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance as his choice for vice-presidential running mate two weeks ago got a certain corner of the tech world very excited because Vance is pro-cryptocurrency. If there are any votes to be had from fans of non-fungible tokens or virtual currencies, Trump is eager to claim them.
And the same Thiel who late last year told the Atlantic that the Trump administration “was crazier than I thought. It was more dangerous than I thought. They couldn’t get the most basic pieces of the government to work”. The conference organiser enthused that the speech would be “heard around the world” even though the vast majority of voters would likely display Resting Bored Ape Face during a political speech about virtual currencies. The Forbes article said Trump’s speech “established his bona fides” on bitcoin – with crypto-flattering statements that were obviously drafted by campaign staff, as opposed to Trump’s nonsensical social media posts about shifting all bitcoin minting to the US.