Trump Fever Dominates Bitcoin Nashville Ahead of Appearance

Orange is in vogue at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville this week, but this year’s crypto confab attracted its fair share of attendees adorned in red.

Former President Donald Trump’s name was plastered across the conference Thursday, on several adverts and pieces of memorabilia. While his keynote speech was still two days away, bright baseball caps dotting the conference floor underscored his supporters' presence.

“This will bring a lot more trust to it,” an attendee named Nico, who declined to provide his last name, told Decrypt of Trump’s impact on Bitcoin over time.

“I think at the very least, [he] provides a larger platform for it,” his friend Sergio, who also declined to provide his last name, added of the former president’s Bitcoin support.

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The Bitcoin fans that flocked to Nashville this year aren’t fixated on the asset’s price. Instead, they’re soaking in bull-market vibes and mingling with like-minded attendees. For many, this year’s confab isn’t their first rodeo. Still, times have changed since Bitcoin’s price hovered around $28,000 in Miami the last time around, just 14 months ago. At the conference’s front entrance, a sign prohibits your typical conference no-nos like outside food and drinks or e-cigarettes. But the warning “...

Meanwhile, a so-called MAG-wag truck circled the venue outside, advertising a meme coin themed around Trump’s vice presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH). The project’s reach extended to the conference’s bathrooms too, with adverts for the Ethereum-based token tucked into stalls.

“I’m over here pushing political finance forward,” a developer of MAGA VP who goes by Airpowerluke told Decrypt. He added that he’s helped launch the meme coin on several other blockchains as well: Ethereum layer-2 network Base, BNB Chain, and Solana.

The former president has courted crypto voters on the campaign trail, flipping from a skeptic to vocal defender as November’s election draws closer. The aforementioned meme coin developer hopes that a Trump administration yields a favorable regulatory environment.

“It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Donald Trump isn't going to stop talking about crypto,” he said. “We know that his agenda is pro-crypto. We know he wants to deregulate it.”

For the blockchain-based prediction platform Polymarket, political drama stemming from this year’s race has spurred record amounts of bets and users on the platform. Near the venue’s front door, attendees could grab free Polymarket merch, such as red hats bearing the platform’s name.

Several other twists were on display for Trump’s most popular political slogan. A hat for sale alongside Bitcoin-themed trading cards read “Make Bitcoin Great Again.”

Meme coins aside, some Bitcoin fans couldn’t be happier to see the former president serve as this year’s most popular speaker. Sergio, for example, hoped that Trump’s Saturday speech would push Bitcoin deeper into the mainstream… while potentially pumping his own bag in the process.

“At the end of the day, you have the most well-recognized person on the planet speaking about Bitcoin,” he said. “It's going to translate to ‘number go up.’”

Edited by Andrew Hayward