Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News. Nashville was the place
Speaker 1: to be this past weekend if you were a crypto enthusiast,
Speaker 1: and even if you're more of a skeptic.
Speaker 2: I'm in the exhibit hall at Bitcoin Nashville and now
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do a walkthrough of the Bitcoin art exhibit.
Speaker 2: Got cipher Punks of the world.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg reporter Zeke Fox was in Music City at the
Speaker 1: site of the annual Bitcoin Conference, taking it all in.
Speaker 2: I'm standing a little close to it. Yeah, it's definitely
Speaker 2: the assassination attempt photo, the famous one with the Trumps
Speaker 2: standing and saying fight artist statement. It says, Bitcoin, like
Speaker 2: Donald Trump, has been a polarizing figure, villainized and criticized
Speaker 2: by many. The painting consists of thousands of dots made
Speaker 2: with the ash from burnt Fiat banknotes.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: This wasn't his first time at one of these. Zeke
Speaker 1: wrote a book called Number Go Up, Inside Crypto's Wild
Speaker 1: Rise and Staggering Fall. But what was different about this
Speaker 1: year's Bitcoin conference was the lineup and who the headliner was.
Speaker 4: Hello, Bitcoiners, thank you very much.
Speaker 5: Hello, it's good to be with you.
Speaker 1: It's good to be with you, Former President Donald Trump.
Speaker 5: I'm thrilled to be here in Nashville to become the
Speaker 5: first American president ever to address a bitcoin event anywhere
Speaker 5: in the world, anywhere in the world.
Speaker 1: His appearance at the annual conference was something of a
Speaker 1: seminal moment for what had once been a fringe financial movement,
Speaker 1: and that wasn't lost on those who bought a ticket.
Speaker 6: I was generally excited because this is the first time
Speaker 6: where we are no longer some niche group of of
Speaker 6: funny money or fraud money, as JP Morgan likes to
Speaker 6: call us, but we're We're at the center stage.
Speaker 7: I think it's a historical moment to, you know, have
Speaker 7: a presidential candidate that has very high chances of winning
Speaker 7: the you know, the elections, to come out here and
Speaker 7: try to wrangle votes from bitcoiners.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just Trump who was there. There was
Speaker 1: RFK Junior, as well as Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, a
Speaker 1: Republican who plans to introduce a major bill about crypto.
Speaker 1: In fact, ten senators were there and Senate hopefuls like
Speaker 1: John Deeton, another Republican who's challenging Senator Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: And we've seen that voting pue crypto or bitcooling enthusiast
Speaker 1: can make a difference. And so we're in an electioneer.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't surprise me that politicians are jumping worn,
Speaker 1: but for Trump it's a bit murkier. Is the forty
Speaker 1: fifth president of the United States a crypto convert? Was
Speaker 1: he there to raise cash to court voters?
Speaker 5: I pledge to the bitcoin community that the day I.
Speaker 3: Take the oath of office, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris's anti
Speaker 3: crypto crusade will be over.
Speaker 1: It will end, It'll be done. It'll be done. I'm
Speaker 1: David Gerra, and this is the big take from Bloomberg
Speaker 1: News on today's episode. Trump's conversion from crypto skeptic to
Speaker 1: crypto enthusiast and the impact that could have on the
Speaker 1: presidential race and his campaign coffers.
Speaker 2: I don't even want to count how many crypto conferences
Speaker 2: I've been to.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg investigative reporter Zeke Fox has been to a lot
Speaker 1: of crypto conferences. In fact, this was his third time
Speaker 1: at this particular event, which is focused exclusively on bitcoin.
Speaker 2: So this conference is it's the Bitcoin Conference. It's actually
Speaker 2: leave a rule that you can't mention other coins while
Speaker 2: they're on stage.
Speaker 1: Since he's been going to the Bitcoin conference, the industry
Speaker 1: has changed dramatically. His first time was back in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one. It was in Miami, and Zeke says the
Speaker 1: atmosphere was euphoric.
Speaker 2: Crypto was booming, and there was this sense that riches
Speaker 2: were around the corner for anyone if they really set
Speaker 2: their mind to it.
Speaker 1: But this year, even though bitcoin prices are higher than
Speaker 1: they were in twenty twenty one, it says, the feeling
Speaker 1: at this conference was more muted.
Speaker 2: I felt like this was a more subdued crowd and
Speaker 2: that the people here were frankly, not as excited as
Speaker 2: I expected that they had gotten Trump to come speak
Speaker 2: to them and endorse their favorite thing, Bitcoin.
Speaker 1: Zeke spoke to a lot of bitcoin enthusiasts in Nashville
Speaker 1: trying to get a sense of how they felt about Trump.
Speaker 2: I was walking around the exhibit hall and I saw
Speaker 2: a man sitting under there was like a giant wizard
Speaker 2: hat suspended from the ceiling that covered a seating area
Speaker 2: that's advertising this wizard themed bitcoin project. And I saw
Speaker 2: a guy sitting there with a couple of patchwork quilts
Speaker 2: that were very pretty, and I sat down and introduced myself.
Speaker 2: So could you introduce yourself? Like, where are you from?
Speaker 4: What's your name?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 2: My name is Can I just go buy a name
Speaker 2: if you if you prefer, it's okay, okay? Can you
Speaker 2: write colonel Colonel Stacker? How do you It's like it's
Speaker 2: a second colonel with a K.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Colonel Colonel Stacker is obviously not his real name,
Speaker 1: but he told Zeke he was a truck driver from
Speaker 1: Cincinnati who makes and sells bitcoin quilts with his mind.
Speaker 2: This looks really nice? Do you make them yourself? My
Speaker 2: mom is the quilter.
Speaker 6: The I do this.
Speaker 2: I'm learning how to stitch right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Bitcoin quilts and pseudonyms aside. Ohio is of course
Speaker 1: a critical state in the upcoming presidential election, so Zeke
Speaker 1: asked the colonel what role, if any, Bitcoin is playing
Speaker 1: in who he votes for.
Speaker 2: Did you in twenty sixteen and twenty twenty did you
Speaker 2: vote for Trump? Back then?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 2: You go Democrat or third party or I've always been
Speaker 2: like if anything libertarian US. Yeah, do you think you'll
Speaker 2: vote for Trump this time? It's a possibility. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: just might.
Speaker 1: According to Zeke, this was a pretty common view everyone.
Speaker 2: I spoke to, I'd ask them, what do you think
Speaker 2: about Trump's coming to speak here? Are you excited? Does
Speaker 2: this change what you think of him? And frankly, most
Speaker 2: people already supported Trump and now would continue to support him,
Speaker 2: or already supported RFK Junior, and we're planning to continue
Speaker 2: to support him, but open to maybe switching to Trump
Speaker 2: if they thought, you know, it is a close election,
Speaker 2: maybe you've got to be pragmatic. I mean, we've got
Speaker 2: Kennedy by so would that be a wasted vote? You know,
Speaker 2: It's kind of where I'm at, So I guess Trump's.
Speaker 3: The only choice.
Speaker 7: So I'm on the realm where I don't mind if
Speaker 7: RFK or Trump wins as long as Biden I guess, now, Kamala.
Speaker 2: Those are RFK and.
Speaker 5: Trump are in my book, I'd be happy with either candidate.
Speaker 2: Are you going to vote for Trump this time?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 5: I don't know, But at the moment, I'm voting for
Speaker 5: whatever the most bitcoin candidate is.
Speaker 1: But if the attendees were luke warm, the big surprise
Speaker 1: was just how pro crypto the former president was when
Speaker 1: he had rest the crowd.
Speaker 2: So I've never been to a Trump rally before, and
Speaker 2: I was kind of impressed with how well he worked
Speaker 2: the audience.
Speaker 3: This afternoon, I'm laying out my plan to ensure that
Speaker 3: the United States will be the crypto capital of the
Speaker 3: planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world, and we'll
Speaker 3: get it done.
Speaker 2: Kid Rock got a shout out, and also all the
Speaker 2: bitcoinners who are now supporting him, So the Winklevoss twins.
Speaker 2: He talked about how handsome they were.
Speaker 4: These are great guys. They look like mail models with
Speaker 4: a brain, you know, the mail models with a big,
Speaker 4: beautiful brain.
Speaker 2: The biggest applause line for Trump was he said that
Speaker 2: he would fire Gary Gensler, the head of the SEC.
Speaker 2: Under his watch, the SEC has sued a number of
Speaker 2: crypto companies.
Speaker 3: One day one, I will fire Gary Gensler and a
Speaker 3: point a knew SEC Chairney.
Speaker 2: This line was so successful that after he got some
Speaker 2: applause for it, he actually was like, oh, you guys
Speaker 2: really liked that one. So he said it again.
Speaker 1: I didn't know he was that unpopular.
Speaker 4: Wow, I didn't know you was that unpopular.
Speaker 1: Let me say it again.
Speaker 5: On day one, I will fire Gary against me.
Speaker 2: He said, you know, if bitcoin's going to the moon,
Speaker 2: the US should lead the way. He said, you know,
Speaker 2: we can't let China dominate this industry, which is kind
Speaker 2: of weird because China has actually made moves to ban
Speaker 2: the crypto industry. But the big thing that Trump announced
Speaker 2: at the end was that the US will establish a
Speaker 2: strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Speaker 5: That if I am elected, it will be the policy
Speaker 5: of my administry United States of America to keep one
Speaker 5: hundred percent of all the bitcoin the US government currently
Speaker 5: hals or acquires into the future.
Speaker 4: We'll keep one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: I hope you do well.
Speaker 4: Please.
Speaker 2: There was no talk of sam bankmin freed FTX, all
Speaker 2: the crypto scams that we've seen in the last couple
Speaker 2: of years, like even these bitcoinners would tell you there
Speaker 2: was like a million scams. If anything, the enforcement should
Speaker 2: have been quicker. You know, we should be saying, why
Speaker 2: didn't you stop all these crypto scams? But none of that, no,
Speaker 2: none of that. I was impressed by how successful the
Speaker 2: bitcoin industry was at getting Trump on their side. He
Speaker 2: really said a lot of the things that they would
Speaker 2: have wanted him to say.
Speaker 1: Coming up after the break inside Trump's transformation from crypto
Speaker 1: skeptic to crypto enthusiast and what that means for the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four US presidential race. When Donald Trump was
Speaker 1: in the White House, he wasn't a bitcoin booster. Far
Speaker 1: from it. But Trump's attitude changed in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 4: Hello everyone, this is Donald Trump, hopefully your favorite president
Speaker 4: of all time, better than Lincoln, better than Washington. With
Speaker 4: an important announcement to make, I'm doing my first official
Speaker 4: Donald J. Trump NFT collection right here and right now.
Speaker 4: They're called Trump Digital Trading Cards.
Speaker 1: Trump recognized there was money to be made in crypto,
Speaker 1: and part of his pitch was if you bought one
Speaker 1: of those non fungible tokens, you'd get a chance to
Speaker 1: meet us.
Speaker 4: Here's one of the best parts. Each card comes with
Speaker 4: an automatic chance to win amazing prizes like dinner with me.
Speaker 5: I don't know if that's an amazing prize, but it's
Speaker 5: what we have.
Speaker 1: Each of those NFTs cost ninety nine bucks and they
Speaker 1: sold out, and Bloomberg Zeek Fox says Trump made good
Speaker 1: on at least one of those amazing prizes he teased
Speaker 1: in that ad.
Speaker 2: So a few months ago there was this big gathering
Speaker 2: of people who bought the Trump cards at mar Lago.
Speaker 2: Trump was there and he said some nicer things about crypto,
Speaker 2: and I think was pleased by the response.
Speaker 1: In the months that followed, Trump held another crypto get
Speaker 1: together at his club in South Florida with bitcoin miners,
Speaker 1: and according to Zeke, he listened as they talked about
Speaker 1: the industry.
Speaker 2: Some people have been throwing out this idea that this
Speaker 2: is a way to win votes. I am unconvinced.
Speaker 1: But according to Zeke, that was the message. On stage
Speaker 1: in Nashville, Trump, RFK Junior, and a handful of lawmakers
Speaker 1: appealed to the crypto community for their votes as they
Speaker 1: criticized the current president for not embracing what they see
Speaker 1: as the future of finance. But interestingly, Zeke said, several
Speaker 1: of the conference goers he talked to said they were
Speaker 1: reserving judgment on Vice President Harris.
Speaker 2: There's been no word from her campaign officially about what
Speaker 2: she thinks about crypto.
Speaker 1: In recent days, there have been reports Harris's campaign has
Speaker 1: reached out to prominent players in the world of crypto,
Speaker 1: and there's bipartisan pressure for her to embrace the crypto
Speaker 1: community as a potentially decisive voting block.
Speaker 2: A group of Democrats sent a letter to Harris saying
Speaker 2: that crypto was on the top of voters' minds in
Speaker 2: swing states and that they Harris should get with the program.
Speaker 2: I just think that's really unlikely, and that honestly, the
Speaker 2: average person you've asked them about crypto has a low
Speaker 2: opinion of crypto but doesn't care that much.
Speaker 1: Zeke left the Bitcoin conference in Nashville with a sense
Speaker 1: that just as Donald Trump's attitude toward crypto has changed,
Speaker 1: there's also been an evolution in bitcoin.
Speaker 2: More broadly, It's supposed to be a way to resist censorship,
Speaker 2: resist the state. This idea that somehow it needs the
Speaker 2: state is anathetical to its origins, and I was kind
Speaker 2: of expecting to meet more people at the conference who
Speaker 2: felt that way.
Speaker 1: But Zeke says that anti government, anti establishment ethos has
Speaker 1: started to fade. Now some of its biggest proponents are
Speaker 1: cowtowing to political candidates, and they're suggesting the US government
Speaker 1: should hold millions of dollars worth of bitcoin. Zeke wonders
Speaker 1: if Trump's decision to embrace crypto has anything to do
Speaker 1: with that philosophy, or if his calculus is much simpler.
Speaker 2: A lot of industries want you to take controversial positions
Speaker 2: in exchange for their support. With bitcoiners, you just have
Speaker 2: to say nice things about bitcoin and they'll write you
Speaker 2: a check. So, in my opinion, it's kind of an
Speaker 2: easy way to raise some money.
Speaker 1: Which is exactly what happened in Nashville. Trump spoke, he
Speaker 1: railed against regulation, he spoke admiringly of crypto's potential, and
Speaker 1: now the price of bitcoin is to almost seventy thousand
Speaker 1: dollars on Monday, not far from its record high, and
Speaker 1: Trump went to a fundraiser where tickets cost more than
Speaker 1: eight hundred grand each.
Speaker 2: Numbers being thrown around at this fundraiser could have raised
Speaker 2: thirty or fifty million.
Speaker 1: According to a Bloomberg analysis, crypto donors have given more
Speaker 1: money this cycle than in all the past ones put together,
Speaker 1: and that's before this weekend's haul. Zeke spoke to Mike Belshie,
Speaker 1: the CEO of bitco, who's hosting a fundraising dinner with
Speaker 1: Trump's running mate, Senator j d Vance on Monday. Thirty
Speaker 1: three hundred dollars gets you a seat. Twenty five thousand
Speaker 1: dollars secures you a place on a round table, but
Speaker 1: Belchie says he's not just courting Republicans.
Speaker 8: So you know, there's this phrase, and I don't know
Speaker 8: who it's distributed to, but you know, first they ignore you,
Speaker 8: then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and
Speaker 8: then you win. And I think for bitcoin, we're somewhere
Speaker 8: in between those last two stages, right and those people
Speaker 8: in the Republican Party that don't think cryptos are good idea.
Speaker 8: There's people in the Democratic Party that don't think crypto
Speaker 8: a good idea, but that doesn't mean that the party
Speaker 8: thinks that it's about idea. And I think what we're
Speaker 8: seeing is that shift. Right now, Kamala Harris is going
Speaker 8: to come out total pro crypto to try to diffuse
Speaker 8: any advantage that Trump may have with it, you know,
Speaker 8: with being pro crypto.
Speaker 1: But for those in attendance at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville,
Speaker 1: should Trump win or lose, they believe in one thing
Speaker 1: fervently that Bitcoin's price can only do one thing, go up.
Speaker 7: When you look at the.
Speaker 1: Blockchain and where this thing's going with bitcoin, and now.
Speaker 6: With Trump support it and all these politicians getting behind it,
Speaker 6: how can you not believe?
Speaker 1: I always said, and when I first got into bitcoin.
Speaker 1: If I could ever, if they'll politics and crypto can
Speaker 1: kind of collide together and.
Speaker 8: I can make an impact in regards to that, that
Speaker 8: would be a dream come true.
Speaker 1: It's coming true.
Speaker 5: Thank you all. Have a good time with you a
Speaker 5: bitcoin and and everything else that you're playing with, and
Speaker 5: we're going to make that one of the greatest industry er.
Speaker 1: This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm David Gura.
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Thomas Leu and Alex Sagura,
Speaker 1: who also mixed this episode. It was fact checked by
Speaker 1: Andreana Tapia. Our senior producers are Naomi Shaven and Kim Gettleson,
Speaker 1: who also edited this episode with Mike Reagan. Our senior
Speaker 1: editor is Elizabeth Ponso. Nicole Beemster bor is Our executive producer.
Speaker 1: Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for listening. Please follow and review The Big Take wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. It helps new listeners find the show.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow.