The great Trump crypto U-turn

Oh, how quickly we forget. During Donald Trump’s first term in office as US President he said that cryptocurrencies were “not money” and were “based on thin air”.

Fast forward to 2024, and the Trumps are now the biggest pro-crypto family on the planet. Trump has grand plans for the US to become more crypto friendly and a global hub.

His son Eric was speaking this week at Bitcoin MENA, a huge crypto event in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. The timing was perfect with Bitcoin recently hitting an all-time high and breaching the symbolic $100,000 mark.

Riding high on the Trump-inspired crypto bull run, Eric told a jam-packed audience: “Now that he's won, you're going to have the most pro-crypto president ... the first president to ever embrace crypto”.

The second son of Donald, Eric drew cheers from the audience, many of whom were wearing red baseball caps emblazoned with “Make Bitcoin Great Again”.

"This is the future of finance ... America is going to lead the way in the digital revolution," added Trump. "A lot more eyes are going to be opened when Bitcoin hits $1 million."

Donald Trump is committed to making the US the crypto capital of the world, a move that might ruffle feathers in others parts of the world with similar aspirations, such as the UAE, Singapore, and the UK.

Akin to a political rally, the Abu Dhabi audience showed their appreciation when Eric Trump praised his father as the single-biggest reason for Bitcoin's turnaround, claiming he was responsible for “adding a trillion dollars to its value”.

Eric is shaping up to become one of his father's most vocal spokesmen for the cryptocurrency industry, taking up the role of head of crypto PR and marketing for the Trump administration.

But it represents a massive u-turn for team Trump and patriarch Donald who was a very vocal crypto sceptic. In his first term in office, he said Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were “not money”, “based on thin air” and something that “can facilitate unlawful behaviour, including drug trade and other illegal activity".

After he left office he even called it a “scam”.

Turning point

Trump’s position changed in December 2022 when he began selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) depicting himself as a superhero, a month after he declared his intention to run for president again.

He raised $8.9 million from the NFTs, which perhaps made him rethink the potential of crypto to make money. From there, Trump started to warm to crypto and earlier this year set up World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance (DeFi) project with a mission to “Make crypto and America great by driving the mass adoption of stablecoins and decentralized finance.”  World Liberty Financial even has its own token.

Since winning the US election race in early November, the crypto market has been rocketed on the promises of a more friendly regulatory and political regime in the US under a Trump administration. He has already given key government roles to some very pro-crypto advocates.

Back in the UAE, Eric Trump took aim at traditional financial institutions and investment tools, saying blockchain and cryptocurrencies are better investments. "There is nothing that can't be done faster, cheaper, more transparently, and really better in this new frontier.”

“So many people in this room have seen this game and I think, what's more, I've also come to learn and see how antiquated the traditional finance system is. Whoa, that's as slow as hell. It's inefficient. It's expensive. And generally speaking, it doesn't serve the needs of hundreds of billions of people around the world.”

As Eric ended his speech, his message was clear: the future is bright for those who dare to embrace this revolutionary technology early.

“I can't wait to celebrate a lot of people in this room who get very wealthy because you have the foresight to see a technology, in the early days, before it got mainstream. There's a lot of people in the room, and I think we're going to do exceptionally well. So, Bitcoiners, I love you. The Trump family loves you.”