Donald Trump accepts Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for campaign donations

US presidential candidate Donald Trump has been accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for campaign donations since yesterday. The ex-president has now followed up his two-week-old announcement to make this possible with action.

On Donald Trump's website, his supporters can now send him donations for his election campaign using various cryptocurrencies. According to the press release, this marks a milestone in campaign financing, as Trump is the first leading candidate to take this step.

Today, President Trump's campaign launched a fundraising page that will allow any donor permitted under federal law - through the Joint Fundraising Committees - to donate using cryptocurrencies accepted through Coinbase's Commerce product.

This addition to President Trump's already groundbreaking digital fundraising operation marks the first time a major party presidential candidate has accepted cryptocurrencies for donations. Contribution limits and disclosure requirements for crypto donations will follow Federal Election Commission regulations.
_{From the press release}

According to the announcement, Trump will use the major US crypto exchange Coinbase to receive the donations properly. As anonymous donations are not permitted for election campaigns in the USA, Trump's team would not have been able to provide a self-managed Bitcoin address. It should also be clear that Trump will exchange the donations via digital assets directly into US dollars and that this is more likely to be seen as a marketing campaign.

Videos of a meeting between Trump and the buyers of his NFT collection circulated earlier this month, in which the former president was surprisingly open to cryptocurrencies and criticized President Biden for his anti-crypto stance - Blocktrainer.de reported. During the event, Trump announced that if it was not yet possible to make campaign donations to him via cryptocurrencies, he would ensure that this would be possible. The 77-year-old kept this promise.

On the page for the new crypto donation function - which only allows access from US IP addresses - Trump once again makes it clear that he would support new technologies as president.

It is also clear from the press release on the new donation option that the leading candidate will now increasingly rely on Bitcoin and Co. in his election campaign in order to steal votes away from his opponent Biden.

Biden's deputy, Elizabeth Warren, said in an attack on cryptocurrencies that she was building an "anti-crypto army" to limit the right of Americans to make their own financial decisions. MAGA supporters, who now have a new cryptocurrency option, will build a crypto army to lead the campaign to victory on November 5th!
_{From the press release}

In the summer of 2021, Trump emphasized that Bitcoin looked like a scam from his point of view. In general, the Republican has also repeatedly outed himself as a strong supporter of a strong US dollar.

However, the ex-president is now presenting himself to the outside world as a "crypto president" who wants to build a "crypto army". It is difficult to judge whether there is conviction behind this or whether the 77-year-old is merely driven by opportunism in this respect. For his election campaign, Trump is already working with Bitcoin Magazine, a major Bitcoin medium from the USA. CEO David Bailey announced this on the platform 𝕏.

Last month, we worked with the Trump campaign to develop their policy agenda for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. We have proposed a comprehensive Executive Order for President Trump to sign on day one. I will share the details soon.
_{David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Magazine}

Bailey already shared an additional piece of information tonight. According to him, Trump wants to increase the market capitalization of Bitcoin by trillions of US dollars - the ex-president is said to have told Bailey this on Monday of this week.

However, the CEO of Bitcoin Magazine deleted the tweet a few minutes after it was published.

For an asset worth around 1.4 trillion US dollars, this would mean a multiplication of the price.

While Trump is openly positioning himself in favor of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, President Biden is causing great displeasure with his anti-attitude towards the asset class. For example, Biden announced that he would veto a resolution that would ensure more Bitcoin-friendly regulation for US banks. This is playing with fire for the President, as even some Democrats in the US Senate voted in favor of the resolution - Blocktrainer.de reported. The political headwind within his own party is already increasing accordingly.

According to one 𝕏-user, who claims to have signed up for text messages from Biden's campaign team, the latter is currently trying to stir up trouble against Trump by accusing him of receiving support from executives in the crypto industry.

Folks, the situation couldn't be more serious. Cryptocurrency executives and oil barons are coming out of the woodwork for Trump. [...] Currently, Trump is overtaking us. He raised a total of 76 million US dollars in April.
_{From the alleged text message from Biden}

In the polls, Trump is ahead by 1.3 percentage points. The ex-president has 41.3 percent, while only 40 percent would currently vote for the re-election of the current president. It will be interesting to see how the US presidential election turns out in November and what role Bitcoin will play in the election campaign.