7 Presidential Candidates Dropped Hints About Their Crypto Stance

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At the end of 2024, citizens of the United States will head to the voting booths to elect their next president for a four-year term that could have a huge impact on the next crypto bull run.

Although polls are due to open on November 5, 2024, dozens of American politicians have already signaled their intention to challenge President Joe Biden for the nation’s top spot.

The current Biden administration seems to have taken an increasingly anti-crypto stance. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is reapplying for the job, setting the stage for a rematch. Others seek to carry the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations.

No core value: Joe Biden Democrat

Current United States President Joe Biden launched his re-election bid on April 25 and is currently the Democratic presidential candidate’s likely frontrunner.

Bidens’ attitude toward crypto is perhaps best summed up by his 2023 President’s Economic Report which included a section on crypto for the first time since its beginnings in 1950.

The section aimed to demystify the perceived appeal of crypto assets. He argued that crypto does not offer the advertised benefits and claimed that many of them have no fundamental value.

Biden rallied against perceived crypto tax loopholes and even opposed a debt ceiling deal with Republicans because he claimed he was protecting wealthy tax cheats and crypto traders.

Its executive order of March 2022 resulted in the first framework for cryptography. He called for a 30% tax on electricity use in crypto mining, doubling capital gains taxes and cracking down on crypto wash sales.

Not a bitcoin fan: Republican Donald Trump

Former President turned NFT salesman Trump launched his bid for non-consecutive re-election on November 15, 2022. According to current polls, he is the preferred Republican candidate.

Trump said crypto can be fake and disaster is waiting to happen. He also said Bitcoin (BTC) looks like a scam and doesn’t like it because it is another currency that competes with the dollar.

In July 2019, as President, Trump tweeted that he was not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies claiming their value was based on air.

During his presidency, Trump targeted the use of crypto in financial crimes and reportedly told his Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to prosecute Bitcoin in a conversation about trade sanctions against China. Cryptocurrencies were mentioned in his 2021 budget proposal, but only to explain their use in crimes.

He did, however, consider a reduction in capital gains tax which could have been favorable to crypto users. Trump administration officials once touted distributed ledger technology (DLT) as a technology that could benefit government operations and bolster the nation’s cybersecurity defenses.

All Right To Make Bitcoin: Ron DeSantis Republican

Ron DeSantis said he would protect Bitcoin in his May 24 presidential candidacy announcement on Twitter. Polls taken before the Florida governor’s announcement ranked him second after Trump.

When launching his Twitter Space campaign, DeSantis said that you have every right to do bitcoin and would protect the ability to do things like bitcoin.

He called out Congress, saying he had never addressed crypto and said regulators had made sure people couldn’t operate in this space.

Its 20222023 budget proposal for the state of Florida proposed that the government allow businesses to pay state fees with cryptocurrencies.

DeSantis is probably best known as an anti-central bank digital currency (CBDC) figure.

It has passed laws in Florida prohibiting the use of a federal CBDC as currency and prohibits the use of foreign CBDCs. He also rallied around the Federal Reserve’s FedNow 24/7 instant payments system, saying it’s a precursor to the CBDC.

Bitcoin shouldn’t be regulated as a security: Vivek Ramaswamy Republican

Pharmaceutical company founder Vivek Ramaswamy has also signaled a pro-crypto stance, but is seen as a long shot for the Republican nomination.

In mid-May, Ramaswamy tweeted that Bitcoin shouldn’t be regulated as a security. At the Bitcoin 2023 conference, he announced that he would be accepting campaign donations in Bitcoin.

During the conference, Ramaswamy reaffirmed that Bitcoin should not be considered a security, saying that we must keep it that way.

Related: New White House Standards Strategy Could Have Implications For Crypto Industry’s KYC

Bitcoin is finite in quantity, there is no issuer. It should never have been treated as a security under current securities laws, he said.

A Major Driver of Innovation: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Democrat

Robert F. Kennedy Jr is considered unlikely to be nominated by Democrats for president, but he has signaled pro-crypto stances.

Earlier in May, he said crypto technologies are a major driver of innovation “and called Bitcoin a symbol of democracy and freedom in a speech at the Bitcoin 2023 conference.

He accepts BTC for campaign donations and was the first presidential candidate to do so, beating Ramaswamy by days.

Kennedy called Bidens a bad idea to propose a 30% energy tax for crypto miners and opposes CBDCs because they greatly amplify the power of governments. He opposes the federal FedNow system for a similar reason.

Others

The third declared favorite Republican candidate, Nikki Haley, has not publicly expressed her views on crypto.

Neither did Democratic candidate Marianne Willamson, but hinted at her disappointment at the Canadian government’s blocking of crypto wallets during the 2022 trucker protests.

Republican Senator Tim Scott is also a bidder and also has no stated crypto policy. He did, however, intend to develop a bipartisan crypto regulatory framework.

He criticized securities regulators’ handling of FTX and wondered if they had fallen asleep at the wheel.

Cointelegraph reached out to the campaigns of Haley, Williamson and Scott to clarify their positions on the crypto but did not receive a response.

Magazine: Crypto Regulation Does SEC Chairman Gary Gensler have the final say?

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