Three reasons Trump’s tweets are good for Bitcoin

By Adriana Hamacher

Crypto Twitter had a field day yesterday President Trump delivered his tuppence-worth about Bitcoin and Facebook’s Libra project. 

“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” said the President, in his first-ever tweet on the subject.

“If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks, both National and International,” he added.

But for cryptocurrency, as a whole, his tweets were nothing except good news. Here’s why.

1 As Trump knows, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

For cryptocurrency, it’s all about adoption. But how can you adopt something if you don’t even know what it is? Trump’s tweet to his 62 million followers presumably reaches some millions of people who are, shall we say, not super sophisticated about crypto. Indeed, Google searches for Bitcoin spiked post-Trump tweet. 

Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong tweeted that the POTUS tweets mark the third stage in the four stages that will lead to adoption: “getting ignored, getting laughed at, getting fought, and then winning.” 

And Jeremy Allaire, the chief executive of  Goldman Sachs-backed Circle, tweeted that Trump’s tweets could be the “largest bull signal” for Bitcoin of all time. 

Within half an hour of Trump’s tweet, Bitcoin had risen by 2%.

2 The enemy of my enemy is my friend. 

If Trump is for something, automatically, much of the U.S. and the rest of the world will take the other side. Presidential hopeful Democrat Andrew Yang is already on the side of ethical crypto. Trump being opposed to it will only make the issue political, and force the rest of the pack to declare themselves.

Indeed, Trump’s ignorant rant might even force Rep. Maxine Waters to soften her hardline, anti-Facebook position. She sure doesn’t want to be Trump’s comrade in arms.

3 Trump will focus his attacks on Facebook

History will not remember Donald Trump as a great intellect. It will be far easier for him to rail against Facebook—which he’s already targeted as being biased against the Right. That will only increase the onus of the social network to spend gazillions of dollars appeasing regulators—which will benefit bitcoin and the rest of the crypto industry. Pull up your lawn chair and grab some popcorn, kids while we watch this play out.

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