Bitcoin by Presidential Decree

ByteFolio Issue 118;

Two weeks ago, the ByteFolio title was The Trump Bump following the assassination attempt, as there seemed to be a link. Prior to that, I never assumed that former President Trump had anything to do with crypto, let alone be the star guest at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.  

He got on stage to cheers, pledging to keep the US-confiscated Bitcoin as a national asset, which was deemed disappointing compared to his rival Robert F Kennedy (Jr), who wanted to build a 4 million BTC national reserve. Trump also called for the USA to become a crypto superpower and the crypto capital of the planet. He also promised to sack Gary Gensler, the head of the US financial regulator, the SEC, and release Ross Ulbricht, the guy behind the Silk Road website where you could buy guns and drugs.

It's not what you’d expect to hear from a US President.

If nations start HODLing Bitcoin, even just the quantity captured by law enforcement, it would mark a substantial change. Currently, I believe many countries don’t know what to do with their Bitcoin stash, and probably choose not to sell it because they feel they might be doing something wrong. More likely is that it’s all too difficult, and best to do nothing. However, a clear US policy that considers Bitcoin to be a national reserve asset would really change the minds of institutional investors.

This is so important because I feel that Bitcoin and crypto have more or less got as far as they can with private investors alone. The next phase was always going to require financial institutions, with the biggest question, “What’s taking them so long?”. I had always assumed it would be retail, institutional, then government, in that order. But what if it was retail, government, then institutional? This sounds unlikely but two out of three US presidential candidates are saying it.

We have been wondering what would drive a major crypto rally, which is still predicted for October. A Presidential Decree would surely help.