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Republican presidential hopeful and convicted felon Donald Trump billed himself as a "crypto president" at a fundraising event Friday, according to those present.
A report in Reuters cited attendees at the fundraiser who claimed Trump had espoused pro-crypto views at the event. "He said he would be the crypto president," said Trevor Traina, ambassador to Austria during Trump's presidency.
While Trump didn't offer any specifics on his crypto policies, he reportedly indicated that, "the Biden-Gensler crusade against crypto will grind to a halt within one hour of a second Trump administration," according to Jacob Helberg, senior policy adviser to the CEO of data analytics provider Palantir.
Among those reported as attending the fundraiser were executives from crypto exchange Coinbase, and Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
Crypto has become something of a hot-button issue in the upcoming election. Last month saw a bipartisan consensus aligning around a key crypto regulation bill, swiftly followed by the surprise approval of multiple U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs, in what crypto industry figures called a "game changer" for crypto.
"My guess is that this is now an extremely important political issue," Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin told Decrypt, arguing that crypto has graduated to a higher status where American politicians have been forced to sit up and take notice.
At the time, crypto industry lobbyists suggested that the passing of a bill with bipartisan support to repeal the SEC rule SAB 121, which President Joe Biden had threatened to veto, had changed the political calculus.
Yet earlier this month, Biden followed through on his threat, arguing that, "This reversal of the considered judgment of SEC staff in this way risks undercutting the SEC's broader authorities regarding accounting practices."
Meanwhile, Republicans have sought to position themselves as the pro-crypto party, with Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, decrying "hostility towards crypto" and accepting Bitcoin donations.
PolitiFi meme coins saw little movement following the report of Trump's fundraiser, with the MAGA (TRUMP) coin up 7% on the day, even as other Trump-themed coins such as MAGA Hat (MAGA) and TREMP traded down.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.