Crypto markets have entered a new phase this year. The US elections have become even more significant for cryptocurrencies. Biden’s efforts for crypto donations continue. Trump, on the other hand, is already looking for ways to win the hearts of crypto investors. His previously dismissive attitude towards crypto is nowhere to be seen.
Trump and Crypto Donations
The founders of the Gemini exchange are rewarding Trump’s stance on crypto. Biden administration’s push for spot ETH ETF approval was driven by Trump’s courting of crypto votes. This is why the SEC made a 180-degree turn on ETH. Naturally, the benefit Trump provided in the crypto space was to be rewarded. The Gemini exchange founders announced today that they donated $1 million worth of BTC.
Tyler Winklevoss from Gemini wrote the following:
“I donated $1 million in bitcoin (15.47 BTC) to Donald Trump and will vote for him in November. Here’s why:
In the past few years, the Biden Administration has openly declared war on crypto. They have weaponized multiple government agencies to bully, harass, and sue good actors in our industry with the aim of destroying them. These actions are nothing but an unprecedented abuse of power for distorted political gain at the expense of innovation, American taxpayers, and the American economy. There is nothing the Biden Administration can do or say at this point to claim otherwise.
Some key points include:
The weaponization of the banking system against crypto companies and their executives. Known publicly as Operation Choke Point 2.0, this situation starts with the OCC (a federal agency that licenses and regulates national banks) and the FDIC (a federal agency that provides deposit insurance to banks) issuing “guidance” and instructing banks behind closed doors not to bank crypto companies. Any bank that does not comply is threatened.
The conversation goes like this: “You have a nice bank. It would be a shame if something happened to it because you banked some crypto companies.” If this tactic is not enough to scare a bank into compliance, inspectors are sent to turn everything upside down. This almost certainly leads to a “finding” – show me the bank, and I’ll show you the crime – resulting in hefty fines or new regulatory rules and conditions that cripple a bank’s ability to operate. The risk is too great. Banks can either choose not to bank crypto companies or have that choice made for them.
These agencies have god-like power over banks because they can revoke their licenses or FDIC deposit insurance at any time under the guise of “safety and soundness” concerns. Therefore, they can act like characters from the Godfather and scare banks into dropping any customer or customer segment they want. This behavior aimed at debanking entirely legal but ideologically disfavored sectors began during the Obama Administration when Joe Biden was Vice President. It was called Operation Choke Point 1.0 back then and is a well-documented stain on the Obama Presidency. The Biden Administration dusted off the playbook and is running it at full speed against the crypto industry.
The weaponization of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against crypto. The Biden Administration’s SEC has not written a single rule for the crypto industry to help its participants understand how to navigate the regulatory environment for this new asset paradigm. This is by design.
By not writing any new rules for crypto, the SEC can disingenuously claim that existing rules based on a 1946 Supreme Court decision about an orange grove in Florida, long before most homes had telephones and 50 years before the commercial internet, are fit for purpose. But they are not.
Here’s an example. If ether is a security, which was an open question until 48 hours ago, then sending ether to a friend from your smartphone violates securities laws. Why? Because only a broker-dealer is allowed to transfer a security. And they can only do it to another broker-dealer. From this example alone, anyone can understand how classifying a crypto like ether as a security would diminish its utility and destroy its ability to usher in a decentralized future. It’s like asking a car to behave like a horse. Yet this is the position Biden’s SEC has taken on almost every crypto. They do this not because they don’t understand the consequences but because they do. These are precisely the outcomes they want. To kill crypto.
The SEC has taken the absurd position that almost every crypto is a security, giving itself a reasonable and open-ended mandate to sue any crypto project and company in the United States. The game is simple. Make compliance impossible, then sue everyone for non-compliance. And this is exactly what the Biden-SEC has repeatedly done to good actors in this space. Instead of setting rules for crypto – something that could be done in a few days – the rules will be written years later by judges and juries who determine that the SEC acted in bad faith and was wrong all along. The waste of time and economic resources will be enormous. Damage will be done. But that’s the point.
The Biden Administration has corrupted the mission and integrity of these agencies. They are all run by unelected bureaucrats appointed to carry out President Biden’s orders. These foot soldiers’ moral compass is political gain, and their higher calling is political power. Congress never gave them the authority to determine the fate of the crypto industry or any legal industry in America, and they are entirely unqualified to act as gatekeepers of economic life in our country. This is the role of the market.
Yet the crypto industry is not alone. The Biden Administration has consistently attacked American business and vilified its greatest champions. The crime is always success, and the reward is always mockery, fines, and more bureaucracy. But to be clear, the Biden Administration does not hate success altogether. It only hates the kind of success outside its control. When it finds a way to seize or coerce success, the Biden Administration becomes quite enthusiastic about it, gleefully manipulating or redistributing it in a transparent attempt to buy votes. Over a long enough timeline, it is easy to see how these policies will lead to the destruction of our economy and country.”
Donald Trump is the Right Choice
Crypto-friendly companies showing such open support is the result of the beatings from the Biden administration in recent years. The Democrats, who have tried to break every bone of the crypto industry through legal means and portray crypto as the source of all the world’s evils, now have to backtrack.
From implying that the use of crypto by sanctioned countries like Iran and North Korea is the end of the world for the US to absurd stories like terrorists only being able to buy weapons with Bitcoin, they have tried every lie. It was clear that the FTX collapse was the result of regulatory incompetence and a lack of rule-making. They even tried to associate this with the nature of crypto. But it didn’t work.
“President Donald J. Trump is a pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, and pro-business choice. This is not up for debate. Anyone telling you otherwise is seriously misinformed, delusional, or not telling the truth. It’s time to take back our country. It’s time for the crypto army to send a message to Washington. Attacking us is political suicide. That’s why I will vote for President Trump in November, and I hope you will too. Forward!”
If the Gemini founders’ move finds the expected support, this will be the point where the real bull market story begins. It will go down in history as the great crypto bull run triggered by the US elections.
