Donald Trump said he would end the “persecution” of the crypto industry, sack the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and free a convict the community views as a martyr. In a direct pitch to cryptocurrency devotees at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday, the Republican candidate promised to end the Biden administration’s “crusade” against bitcoin.
Some attendees wore T-shirts calling to free Ross Ulbricht, who was given a life sentence in 2015 for creating the online black market Silk Road, by voting for Trump. The GOP presidential nominee’s promise to commute his sentence caused the second biggest cheer of the speech, after the call to fire Gensler. “They slander you as criminals but that happened to me, too, because I said the election was rigged,” said Trump.