Joe Biden now also wants to accept campaign donations in cryptocurrencies?

According to an exclusive report by The Block, President Joe Biden's team is currently seeking to be able to accept campaign donations via Bitcoin and the like. This was reported to the crypto news medium by people familiar with the matter.

Donald Trump, Joe Biden's opponent, has already been accepting donations in Bitcoin and Co. for more than three weeks, making him the first leading candidate to take this step - Blocktrainer.de reported. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are becoming an increasingly important campaign issue in the upcoming US presidential election.

The Block's sources report that Biden's team is in talks to accept donations in Bitcoin and the like through Coinbase's platform as well.

U.S. President Joe Biden's campaign is in talks with crypto industry players about accepting crypto donations through Coinbase Commerce, sources familiar with the matter told The Block.
_{From the article}

In doing so, the campaign team is looking to bolster coffers with cash-rich supporters of cryptocurrencies and signal that the Biden administration is not hostile to the asset class.

Bitcoin and Co. have become the focus of the presidential election. Biden has often faced criticism for his negative stance on cryptocurrencies - including from within his own party. As former President Trump has been marketing himself as the "crypto president" for several weeks now, Biden currently risks losing votes in the Bitcoin and crypto community, which should not be underestimated.

People from the incumbent president's circles probably also recognize this.

People in [Biden's] outer inner circle are now explicitly telling the Biden team: If you keep quiet on this crypto thing and don't get up to speed, you could lose the election.
_{An anonymous person familiar with the issue told The Block}

Nevertheless, the issue of the crypto donation function is still in the exploration phase, explains one of the insiders.

At the end of May, The Block wrote, also citing anonymous sources, that Biden was meeting with companies from the crypto industry to seek advice - Blocktrainer.de reported. Accordingly, there were hopes that the Democrat would now also want to back Bitcoin and Co. However, as the president then vetoed the crypto-friendly banking regulation he had announced and pro-Bitcoin statements have yet to materialize, some have once again lost faith in a turnaround.

Meanwhile, former President Trump is continuing his election campaign as a crypto advocate. At a fundraiser in San Francisco last week, the 77-year-old is said to have introduced himself as the "crypto president" and emphasized that the sector is important and that he supports it, according to sources from the Reuters news agency. On Tuesday of this week, Trump also met with representatives of the Bitcoin mining industry and subsequently announced that he wanted all remaining Bitcoin in the US to be mined - Blocktrainer.de reported.

It seems that the positions on Bitcoin and Co. could actually be decisive in this year's election. The well-known investor Mark Cuban emphasized that Biden would have to make a decision in this regard, otherwise he would lose. Similar voices are coming from the Bitcoin community. The esteemed analyst Dylan LeClair emphasized that it will be exciting to see whether the Democrats will now also openly position themselves for the asset class or shoot themselves in the foot.

However, the fact that Biden would also like to accept donations in cryptocurrencies should not be overinterpreted. As one of The Block's sources points out, politicians are also interested in collecting money during election campaigns. And if cryptocurrencies are an effective means of doing this, promising additional income, then there is not much to be said against this step - even if there is a charged political debate surrounding it.

People are looking for money ... and [they] are looking for every vote.
_{One of the sources told The Bock}

Even if the driving force behind Trump's pro-Bitcoin stance and Biden's supposed about-turn is probably just opportunism, this shows that Bitcoin has become much more relevant as an issue. Even US presidents now seem to recognize that the population is interested in the success of Bitcoin and Co. and that they can win votes with a positive attitude.

Should President Biden actually accept donations in Bitcoin and Co. in the near future, this would be a step towards a more Bitcoin-friendly election campaign. However, as Trump has already positioned himself more clearly in this regard, it would be difficult for Biden to win back supporters of Bitcoin. At the same time, however, Biden would also risk angering the many opponents of cryptocurrencies among the Democrats.

It will be interesting to see whether Biden will come out clearly in favor of cryptocurrencies in the future and what role Bitcoin will play in the campaign leading up to the presidential elections in November.