ECONOMIC POLICY
Crypto fanatics flock to Trump, hoping to ‘make bitcoin great again’
Once a crypto skeptic, Trump was set to speak Saturday to bitcoin supporters whose backing — and campaign checks — he has come to covet.

By Tony Romm
Updated July 27, 2024 at 4:27 p.m. EDT | Published July 27, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

NASHVILLE — There were stacks of orange coins, a crypto-themed stock car and a plethora of miniature rockets meant to embody the hope that prices might shoot “to the moon.” … But the usual trappings accompanied a more political sight at the annual conference that bills itself as the world’s largest gathering of bitcoin enthusiasts: klaxon-red hats emblazoned with the slogan “Make bitcoin Great Again.”

Many of the nation’s leading cryptocurrency companies, executives, investors and fanatics are beginning to unite around former president Donald Trump, hoping their public embrace — and increasingly generous campaign checks — might entice and elect a presidential candidate who will spare the industry from federal regulation.

“This is the steel industry of 100 years ago,” Trump said in a direct appeal to crypto supporters here Saturday, promising he would turn the United States into the “crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world.”

Under President Biden, the U.S. government has aggressively cracked down on crypto, seeking to protect average Americans from scams and prevent the largely anonymous tokens from enabling illicit activities. But the fierce oversight has chafed crypto advocates and angered wealthy political benefactors in Silicon Valley. To ward off new federal probes, environmental protections and financial regulations, they have gravitated toward Trump — even if they don’t always like him — in the hope that he will deliver relief in Washington.

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By Tony Romm
Tony Romm is the economic policy and accountability reporter at The Washington Post. Twitter