On Monday, a panel of the Republican National Committee approved a draft of the party platform for 2024, part of which backs Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, and vows to end the “un-American crackdown” Democrats are forging against digital currencies in general.
The fifth RNC platform plank is called “champion innovation.” In it, the RNC states:
“Republicans will end Democrats’ unlawful and un-American Crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency. We will defend the right to mine Bitcoin, and ensure every American has the right to self-custody of their Digital Assets, and transact free from Government Surveillance and Control.”
Following the platform committee’s approval of the draft plan, it will be put before the full RNC for a final vote, which is expected to happen on Tuesday.
The chair of that platform committee is Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. On Monday, she issued a written statement which read:
“The job of the chair is to orchestrate the platform committee meeting, and I am so proud the delegates passed Donald J. Trump’s platform.”
This particular plank of the RNC platform is the latest move that shows Trump, and as a result the GOP as a whole, has sought to embrace the cryptocurrency industry. During a fundraiser held in Silicon Valley last month, Trump said he’d ultimately be known as the “crypto president.”
That’s a dramatically different stance than President Joe Biden and his White House administration has taken, seeking to at the very least investigate possible crackdowns and regulation of the crypto industry.
In June, the co-founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, announced that they were donating $2 million in Bitcoin to Trump’s presidential campaign. In doing so, the twins said the reason behind the donation was because of the “war against crypto” that the Biden administration was waging.
The Winklevoss twins are perhaps most well-known for being the original co-founders of Facebook. They have claimed that while they were at Harvard University, Mark Zuckerberg stole the source code of a social media platform they created called Harvard Connection, which he then used to create a new site he called thefacebook.com.
After years of disputes in court, Facebook reportedly paid them $65 million in 2009 to settle the lawsuit. They received $20 million in cash as well as $45 million worth of Facebook stock, which amounted to roughly 1.25 million shares at that time.
Today, the Winklevoss’ are leaders in the cryptocurrency industry, with each having a net worth estimated above $2 billion.
Another leader in the industry, Jesse Powell — who co-founded the Kraken digital currency exchange — pledged $1 million to the Trump campaign.
In making that donation, Powell wrote on the social media platform X:
“I am excited to join other leaders from our community to unite behind the only pro-crypto major party candidate in the 2024 Presidential election.”
While the cryptocurrency industry is becoming more mainstream, there are still some major controversies that have happened in recent years, such as the overnight collapse of the FTX platform, that have continued to bring negative publicity to it.
