Source: The Atlantic
Original Title: Trump's Crypto Playbook Is Now Clear
Translated and Compiled by: BitpushNews
His business interests and policy agenda are now highly aligned.
The crypto world always seems extremely complex. The technology itself is complicated, not to mention the insider jargon and subculture etiquette. But even if you don't understand what DePIN or zk-SNARKs are, just looking at the guest lineup of the 2025 Bit conference can give you a glimpse of the industry's current state: The event features meme coin promoters full of jokes, genuine crypto enthusiasts, some self-proclaimed "Gwart" crypto podcasters - and a large group of Wall Street executives who will only "get serious" when Bit reaches $100,000.
Of course, there are also many MAGA supporters. Vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, Trump's sons, and the White House's "crypto affairs director" David Sacks all gave speeches. The main message they conveyed was: "Trump and crypto are a perfect match."
"What you're doing in this conference room is essentially the financial version of what we've been pushing for in the realm of free speech," Trump's son Donald Jr. said during a conversation with Rumble's CEO, "These two are inseparable."
In other words, they want to tell us: **Trump genuinely cares about the "civil liberty" concept long advocated by the Bit community.** This narrative sounds beautiful, serving as an "idealized packaging" to explain why this president, who once publicly questioned Bit, suddenly changed his stance. Of course, this explanation also conveniently masks a more realistic side: In the past year, the Trump family launched two meme coins and announced controlling a new crypto company called World Liberty Financial. As I previously wrote, crypto has quickly become a new label for the "Trump family enterprise": Last month, Trump even held a private dinner at a golf course in Washington suburbs for the largest investors of his $TRUMP token.
But this connection is far more than just a few business investments. His government has simultaneously advanced a highly biased "pro-crypto" policy route - including deregulation and withdrawing some lawsuits against crypto companies. In the same week that Junior Trump appeared at the Bit conference, the US Department of Labor relaxed a Biden-era guideline - which originally restricted Americans from investing their 401(k) retirement accounts in crypto due to its extreme price volatility and high risk. Now that regulatory language has been deleted, effectively removing the guardrails and implicitly encouraging more people to invest their retirement funds in the crypto market. This move could potentially drive up the prices of cryptocurrencies like Bit, indirectly benefiting the Trump family's asset portfolio. Ultimately, Trump's crypto ambitions are both national policy and personal wealth planning.
Crypto Is Becoming the "Universal Glue" of the Trump Administration
Look at Trump's "Trump Media & Technology Group" - originally the parent company of his right-wing social platform Truth Social, which initially had nothing to do with crypto but has now fully pivoted towards crypto. At the end of last month, Trump Media announced raising $2.5 billion to purchase Bit, essentially establishing a "corporate Bit reserve" for the company. Their statement was: "We view Bit as the pinnacle tool for financial freedom." CEO Devin Nunes (former Republican congressman) said so.
Beyond this "quasi-utopian language", this so-called "Bit reserve" is actually just linking Trump Media's stock price ($DJT) with Bit. This multi-billion dollar investment is certainly beneficial to the crypto market, but equally beneficial to Trump himself, as his personal wealth is now deeply tied to crypto assets. (It's worth noting that neither the White House nor Trump Media responded to the author's request for comment.)
Does this sound familiar? Indeed, it's identical to the "Strategic Bit Reserve" proposed by the White House in March, which is part of the US plan to build global crypto leadership. Whether government or enterprise, such large-scale investments serve the same purpose: adding "legitimacy" to crypto assets and enhancing their long-term survival as an asset class.
Trump's approach to promoting crypto is "two-pronged": The White House sets the tone, while family enterprises follow up in the capital market.
Everything Was Paved Earlier, "Deregulation" Became the Accelerator
In fact, even before engaging in crypto business, Trump had already clearly positioned himself on the side of crypto in policy. He promised during his campaign to fire the "crypto regulator" of the Biden administration - SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, which won him donations from many crypto industry backers.
Especially after the Sam Bankman-Fried collapse, Gensler concentrated on cracking down on crypto companies, a policy later mocked as the "Choke Point 2.0 Operation" - an analogy to the Obama-era government's pressure on banks to cut ties with "gray industries" like payday loan companies.
At the Bit conference, vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance directly stated: "Choke Point 2.0 is dead, and the Trump administration will not revive it."
The fact is, during Trump's second term, the government has withdrawn more than ten lawsuits and investigations against crypto companies. Now, the line between "supporting crypto" and "supporting Trump" has become increasingly blurred, almost merging.
In the MAGA universe, crypto, Trump, and "American interests" are described as completely consistent: benefiting one is benefiting the others.
For instance, although Trump still talks about "bringing manufacturing back to America", his sons are operating a crypto mining company called "American Bitcoin", and Trump Media is advancing a so-called "Made in America" crypto investment fund.
After firing many key officials regulating crypto, Trump has injected a large amount of funds into the entire crypto industry, including his own related businesses. Whether it's policy relaxation or private investment, the logic behind it is the same: "This benefits America."
The Irony of Decentralization: Everything Became "Trump-Centric"
The biggest irony is that the original intention of cryptocurrency was precisely to counter "state intervention".
Bit was born with the aim of providing a decentralized financial system that could transfer funds freely without state interference, wanting to create a new order, a world not dependent on the traditional financial system. (After all, "decentralization" is the underlying logic of crypto.)
However, now, through deregulation, releasing benefits, and promoting policies, Trump is actually achieving some parts of the "early crypto dream" - only, that decentralized, faceless ideal society has now become a financial order centered on Trump himself.
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