
Bitcoin has surged in recent weeks, a rise some attribute to a “political shift” toward the Republican Party ahead of the 2024 United States presidential election.
On Oct. 15, Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump took to X to declare that “Crypto is the future,” calling it an “incredible technology” and reiterating his intention to help the US become a global leader in digital assets.
Former US president and 2024 presidential nominee Donald Trump. Source: Donald Trump
In September, analysts at the international bank Standard Chartered referred to Trump’s potential victory as a pump signal, predicting that Bitcoin (BTC) could reach $125,000 under Trump by year’s end.
Trump’s emergence as a major crypto advocate came just a few years after the former president publicly called Bitcoin a “scam,” marking a big U-turn on crypto.
Cointelegraph explored Trump’s transformation from a Bitcoin critic to a major market catalyst.
Bitcoin’s value is based on “thin air,” Trump argued during his former presidency
“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” Trump wrote on Twitter in July 2019.
Trump also warned about the risks of “unregulated crypto assets,” saying they can facilitate “unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”
Source: Donald Trump
Trump continued criticizing Bitcoin and crypto even after his presidential term ended in January 2021. At the time, X suspended him from the platform, citing violations of the company’s policy against “glorification of violence.”
The former president publicly slammed Bitcoin again in July 2021, calling it a “scam” in an appearance on Fox Business. Trump reasoned his statement by arguing that Bitcoin was “another currency competing against the dollar.” He stated:
“Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam […] I don’t like it because it is another currency competing against the dollar. Essentially, it is a currency competing against the dollar. I want the dollar to be the currency of the world,…..