Bitcoin loving Kanye West renews 2020 push to become US president

By Daniel Phillips

American rapper, song-producer and entrepreneur Kanye West has just announced that he is running for president of the United States.

West, who also goes by the name "Yeezy," broke the news on Twitter this morning, where he dropped the bombshell announcement to his almost 30 million followers.

"We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future," he declared on the current president's favorite social media platform. "I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION."

That could be good for Bitcoin. In a 2018 interview with television personality Charlamagne, West mentioned his dissatisfaction with the style of $20 bill, mentioning that it reminded him of slavery and made him want to use Bitcoin.

So far, the Twitter community has largely reacted positively to the announcement, and West has already drawn support from several big names, including Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk and claimed presidential candidate John McAfee.

Four-years in the making

This isn't the first time that Kanye, a known proponent of Bitcoin and other decentralized technologies, has announced he intends to run for president. At the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye also announced he'd run for president in 2020. "I have decided, in 2020, to run for president," said Kanye during the yearly award show.

But these plans were seemingly put on hold after West announced back in November last year that he would instead by running in the 2024 elections. Despite this, West now appears to have backpedaled on the delay, and could now be poised to run against long-time friend and fellow billionaire Donald Trump.

However, people aren't so sure that his claim is genuine. After all, Kanye doesn't appear to have registered his name with the Federal Election Commission (FEC)—a federal agency tasked with ensuring candidates adhere to the Federal Election Campaign Act. West initially claimed he had considered running using the name "Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West," but neither this nor his actual name is registered with the FEC.

This sentiment is echoed by popular Youtuber Marques Brownlee (MKBHD), who thinks that Kanye " might be a tiny bit late for this election."

Nonetheless, if successful, Kanye would become the first president in history with a positive stance on Bitcoin, potentially adding further legitimacy to the first and still most popular cryptocurrency.

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