Adapted from W3C Bank of America: Trump and Biden are competing to "win over Bitcoin"!
For the crypto industry, the 2024 U.S. presidential election has become a political show that is completely different from the 2020 and 2016 elections. Whether it is the agenda setting during the entire election cycle or the public statements of the presidential candidates on both sides, cryptocurrencies have unprecedentedly begun to be involved. The candidates on both sides are even "comparing" their open attitudes.
Five years ago, when Trump was still in office, he publicly stated that he "doesn't like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies because they are not currencies, their values are highly volatile and they have no real basis." However, as a rare heavyweight politician who has successively issued several NFT series, Trump is now qualified to flaunt his strong support for cryptocurrency.
Especially as the election heats up, Trump has increasingly positioned himself as a "crypto-friendly" candidate, claiming to be a supporter of financial technology innovation. On May 22, he opened a cryptocurrency donation website and officially accepted crypto donations - in addition to Bitcoin and Ethereum, it also supports USDC, SOL, XRP, DOGE, ZRX, SHIB and other cryptocurrencies. He even frequently made public calls to show his tolerance for cryptocurrencies: leading the "cryptocurrency army" and "pushing the campaign to victory on November 5 (election day)" and so on.
In contrast, Biden, who has always been known for his strict regulatory attitude, seems to have softened his stance due to election considerations, trying to win the support of young voters. After all, people of color and young people were the key Democratic Party vote bank for Biden's victory in the 2020 election, and their recognition of cryptocurrencies is the highest among all generations and ethnic groups.
In addition, US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. (nephew of former President John Kennedy) is also a staunch supporter of encryption, "Cryptocurrency is our way out of dependence on the Federal Reserve, which is the best way to fight inflation. It deprives the government and the monopoly banking system of control, which uses money printing to transfer wealth to billionaire oligarchs while impoverishing ordinary Americans. .
In general, the election year is definitely a key factor. For the United States, the group that directly or indirectly holds crypto assets has become a force that cannot be ignored, especially when the poll data is tight. The "critical minority" is a juicy nut, as can be seen from the passage of the FIT21 bill at this time.
Whether it is Trump's positive statement or Biden's timely turn, it is essentially to attract votes from the crypto community. In the context of 2024, it is more like a means. The relaxation at the administrative, legislative, and regulatory levels is the important observation window that deserves more attention in the future.
On May 22, the Financial Innovation and Technology in the 21st Century Act (FIT21 Act) was passed by the House of Representatives with an overwhelming majority of 279 votes to 136. The bill established a regulatory framework for digital assets and is considered to be one of the bills with the most far-reaching impact on the crypto industry. The bill clearly defines two agencies for regulating crypto assets: one is the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the other is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
If a crypto asset is defined as a commodity, it is regulated by the CFTC; if it is defined as a security, it is regulated by the SEC. The specific judgment of whether a crypto asset is a commodity or a security can be divided into factors such as "investment contract (The Howey Test)", "use and consumption", "degree of decentralization", "functions and technical characteristics", and "market activities".
This is equivalent to clarifying comparable regulatory rules for a series of current crypto projects, which is a big step forward compared to the previous unknown state where the SEC was wielding the big stick everywhere. After all, it is well known that compared to the SEC, which frequently takes law enforcement actions in the crypto field, the CFTC has a relatively mild attitude.
Of course, this change has a strong political flavor. To put it bluntly, the Democratic Party urgently needs young people to vote. If we look at Biden’s actions from the perspective of the election, his main positioning is to position himself as a "visionary octogenarian."
In any case, the relaxation of the executive and legislative levels will always prompt a shift in the regulatory level. Regardless of the actual subsequent direction, this is a turning point for crypto assets to further enter the mainstream vision and obtain a legal and compliant framework.
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