The following is a guest post by Kadan Stadelmann, CTO of Komodo Blockchain.
After weeks of a neck-to-neck presidential campaign between the Democratic and Republican nominees, Donald Trump’s odds of being elected to President of the US are on the rise. According to betting market Polymarket, Trump leads Democrat candidate Kamala Harris by a whopping 30-plus points at the time of writing.
Despite Harris incorporating crypto into her campaign, with the help of Mark Cuban, the Presidency seems to be slipping away from the current Vice President.
Trump has not brought up Bitcoin in a large campaign event in several months. There are numerous possibilities for Trump to court votes among the Bitcoin community by putting forth a Bitcoin plan with the intention of paying down the national debt.
Trump Should Recommit To Bitcoin
For example, it is time for Trump to reveal his intention of holding Bitcoin as a national strategic asset. He should outline an extensive Bitcoin policy, highlighting his plan to scoop up 20% of the Bitcoin supply or about 4 million bitcoins. He should position this as a way to pay down the national debt. To do so will take an aggressive Bitcoin strategy. Trump should outline it. Harris could do the same, but she is unlikely to do so.
Despite a foray into the world of DeFi to the chagrin of Bitcoin maximalists, Trump has demonstrated an understanding of how Bitcoin can be applied at the nation-state level.
While announcing his national debt plan, he can extol all the different virtues of Bitcoin and how it can benefit the nation.
For example, he has stated that, in his view, Bitcoin miners help to stabilize the energy supply and the grid. He committed to being an advocate for miners from his seat in the Oval Office. Trump posted on social media:
“Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against a CBDC,”
He added:
“Biden’s hatred of Bitcoin only helps China, Russia, and the Radical Communist Left. We want all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!! It will help us be ENERGY DOMINANT!!!”
The former President, whose campaign has accepted crypto donations, has gone so hard after the Bitcoin vote, he even pledged at the 2024 Libertarian Party convention to commute Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht’s double life sentence.
Trump’s campaign rhetoric was early on shared by senior advisor to the Trump administration:
“…crypto innovators and others in the technology sector are under attack from Biden and Democrats” and “while Biden stifles innovation with more regulation and higher taxes, President Trump is ready to encourage American leadership in this and other emerging technologies.”
Trump, to be sure, does not view crypto as currency nor has he voiced any support for Nayib Bukele’s Bitcoin legal tender law. That should change.
Trump has a golden opportunity to be proactive and introduce policy as part of a campaign strategy to get elected. He should announce a plan to acquire a substantial amount of Bitcoin with the intention of paying down the national debt.
Trump should guarantee the right to self-custody and create a working group to explore the possibility of creating a Bitcoin Standard similar to the classical gold standard. The U.S. could still create dollars. They would just have to be pegged to Bitcoin.
With the election only one week out, Trump can stir up further excitement with a clear Bitcoin policy: pledging to hold 20% of all Bitcoin in supply.