The other shoe has dropped, and the president of the United States doesn’t like bitcoin. While disappointing, it’s not entirely shocking that a man who accumulated his wealth in the real estate market would take issue with a non-sovereign currency. His rejection of the digital currency, however, largely seemed to inspire a collective sigh of relief from the crypto community. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that even President Trump can’t stop bitcoin.
As Gemini Co-Founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss pointed out earlier this week, the only way to stop bitcoin is to “shut down the internet.” While much of the World Wide Web suffered outages today, this isn’t North Korea. In response to Trump, Gemini quoted Tyler Winklevoss, saying:
“We have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical framework that is free of politics and human error.”
“We have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical framework that is free of politics and human error.” – @tylerwinklevoss
— Gemini (@Gemini) July 12, 2019
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell urged the president not to stifle innovation in the U.S. There are plenty of crypto-friendly jurisdictions that entrepreneurs, developers, and others can take their talents to.
Mr. President, one could say the same of unregulated fiat currencies, like the privately operated US dollar. The advantage of cryptocurrencies is that they are predictable and transparent. Regulated or not, useful tools can be used for good and evil. Don’t let the US fall behind.
— Jesse Powell (@jespow) July 12, 2019
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire was also among the first to respond, suggesting that crypto has finally arrived now that it has become a global policy issue. He says it’s “possibly the largest bull signal for BTC ever.”
Possibly the largest bull signal for BTC ever. Crypto now a Presidential / Global policy issue. People everywhere will embrace a mix of sovereign and non-sovereign digital currency. https://t.co/PK79wmCddM
— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) July 12, 2019
Nonetheless, the bitcoin price basically yawned on the heels of the president’s comments. The fact that it didn’t shock investors and send the price reeling is a positive sign for the market including tomorrow’s trading.
ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees likened the legacy financial system to that of the U.S. Postal Service, which has pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur given the rise of email and faster delivery companies.
The US Postal Service will ALWAYS be the best message delivery system! https://t.co/BPPufB8Co5
— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) July 12, 2019
Bitcoin isn’t limited by any borders or governed by any single jurisdiction. San Francisco-based Coinbase employees nearly 1,000 people, according to Owler, and they are just one example. President Trump is extremely proud of the country’s jobs record, and crypto is a burgeoning industry that is helping to fuel that growth. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also responded to the president’s dislike of bitcoin:
Achievement unlocked! I dreamt about a sitting U.S. president needing to respond to growing cryptocurrency usage years ago. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”. We just made it to step 3 y’all. https://t.co/N3tzUKELaK
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) July 12, 2019
No doubt all eyes are going to turn toward Andrew Yang, who is a presidential candidate for the Democrats. Yang already envisions a world in which the blockchain is “a big part of the future.” He is cited in Fortune as saying:
“If I’m in the White House, oh boy are we going to have some fun in terms of the cryptocurrency community.”
This campaign is one of the big stories of 2020 – and they haven’t seen anything yet 👍🥊🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/fJp0F6GO8G
— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) July 5, 2019
And while leaders in the crypto community were emboldened, there were others still who expressed their concern that this will be a hurdle to mainstream adoption. But even today progress was made with the first token sale regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
