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Florida governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis says he would call off the Biden administration’s alleged attack against the crypto industry on his first day in office if elected as commander in chief.
“Biden's war on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency will come to an end when I become president,” said DeSantis during a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Monday.
The Republican, who has previously expressed support for the right to use Bitcoin, reiterated his impartial attitude toward the technology, while again blasting the current administration’s consideration of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). “As President, on day one, CBDC goes into the trash can—we’re not going to allow it,” he said.
Unlike private-market cryptocurrencies, a CBDC is issued directly by a country’s central bank and can be programmed to prohibit certain transactions. DeSantis signed state-level legislation in May banning the issuance of a federal CBDC within Florida’s borders, blasting it as a tool for financial surveillance.
After announcing his campaign bid, DeSantis joined Elon Musk in a Twitter Spaces to expand upon his position, and insisted that citizens have “every right to do Bitcoin.” While supportive of the technology, he also claimed that the network is doomed if Biden gets re-elected.
“Bitcoin represents a threat to them,” DeSantis said at the time. “They’re trying to regulate it out of existence.”
Between restrictions on banking access and regulatory clampdowns, major crypto firms from the United States are already migrating overseas, or developing plans to do so. Meanwhile, some industry leaders such as Coinbase and Grayscale are battling the government in court for the freedom to launch their products despite a widely regarded absence of regulatory clarity.
While members of Congress are trying to push legislation through to provide more clarity, Rep Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has called out the White House for refusing to negotiate on such matters.
Like DeSantis, other Presidential candidates—including Francis Suarez and Robert Kennedy Jr.—have made their support for Bitcoin widely known. The latter has also proposed partially backing the dollar with Bitcoin and eliminating capital gains taxes from sales of the asset.