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Former president donald trump He may have successfully wooed pro-crypto voters last week with promises to embrace the booming digital asset market if elected president once again, but his street cred in the cryptocurrency industry dates back to 2017. says a former regulator.
Speaking at a crypto policy summit in Washington, DC on Wednesday, Chris Giancarlo, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said Trump already holds the title of "United States." first crypto president," and has done so since his first year in office, when his administration gave the green light to the launch of bitcoin futures contracts on the CFTC.
"In addition to announcing that he is now 'good with it' (i.e. cryptocurrencies), Trump can rightly claim to be 'America's first crypto president,'" Giancarlo said. "That is due to the launch of regulated bitcoin futures in the first year of the Trump presidency.
"The enduring success of that regulated futures market has helped ensure that the world's first digital commodity, bitcoin, is priced in US dollars," he continued, calling it a major achievement for the future of digital assets.
Cryptocurrencies, Giancarlo said, were not political in 2017, when he and his fellow CFTC commissioners were โunited in support of regulatory innovation.โ
The Trump administration gave the green light to the launch of bitcoin futures contracts on the CFTC. (James Devaney/GC Images | istock / Getty Images)
Now, seven years later, cryptocurrency is poised to become a political issue for the first time in a presidential election following Trump's comments at an event in Florida last week that, if elected, he would end the " hostility" that the crypto industry has faced since Biden regulators and Democratic legislators.
Trump encouraged the crowd to vote for him if they liked cryptocurrencies "in any form," and even hinted that he might start accepting cryptocurrency campaign donations.
His words sparked widespread excitement in the crypto community about an entire industry in November.
The cryptocurrency industry, determined to make its voice heard in the elections, has raised more than $100 million through so-called super PACs, and major cryptocurrency companies such as Ripple and Coinbase have made large donations. Individual donations to pro-cryptocurrency candidates, such as Massachusetts Senate candidate John Deaton and Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, are also increasing. Six months away from November.
John Deaton, Republican Senate candidate for Massachusetts. (Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, President Biden has often riled up the fickle cryptocurrency crowd since taking office, thanks in large part to his Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, who has initiated a slew of coercive actions against some of the largest companies in the sector. and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who has touted building an โanti-crypto army.โ
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks at a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on March 7. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Under Biden, the second and the CFTC have fought over who should have jurisdiction over the $2 trillion crypto industry, as Congress struggles to pass bipartisan legislation to resolve the issue. Meanwhile, the industry has been trying to get clarity from several courts with judges also disagreeing on whether digital assets should be regulated as commodities or securities.
The result has been growing animosity from crypto participants who see the federal government as attempting to nullify their livelihood.
Prominent crypto billionaires like Cardano and the founder of Ethereum Carlos Hoskinson have taken to social media following Trump's comments, saying a Biden victory in November would further hurt the industry.
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By contrast, Giancarlo says the Trump administration's approval of bitcoin futures contracts has helped strengthen the power of the dollar by reinforcing its reserve currency status. He notes that bitcoin, now trading above $60,000, recently overtook the Swiss franc as the world's 13th largest currency and that cryptocurrencies are "not going away."
Bitcoin futures also helped pave the way for the January launch of 10 spot bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) that track the daily price of the world's largest digital currency. The launch was hailed as a watershed moment for the industry as it was finally legitimized on Wall Street by major asset managers like BlackRock and Fidelity, who could now offer crypto exposure to their clients in the highly regulated ETF format.
Trump's critics say his sudden "180" on cryptocurrencies (in June 2021, he said bitcoin "seems like a scam" that threatened the dominance of the dollar) is simply a clever ruse to win votes from a passionate group of people who feel marginalized, even attacked, by the current administration.
Some cryptocurrency industry participants say they felt the same way under the regulatory gaze of Trump's SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, who bought 56 โโcryptocurrency-related enforcement actions over the course of his four-year tenure. By contrast, Gary Gensler has contributed more than 90 since the start of his presidency in April 2021.
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Giancarlo, who served under both a Democratic and a Republican administration while at the CFTC, is no stranger to the political playbook, but notes that the Trump administration is crafting an "innovative regulatory regime for cryptocurrencies" with the establishment of bitcoin futures as "proof that US regulators can successfully regulate cryptocurrencies if they are willing to do so."
