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It’s not particularly fashionable to point out when Donald Trump gets something right (whether accidentally or not). But for the record, in 2021 he was right about crypto. Having two years previously pointed out that crypto is not “money“and that its value is “based on nothing,” said former bitcoin president “It just looks like a hoax”, suggested that encryption was “a disaster waiting to happen”, and said that “the world’s bitcoins” should be regulated “very, very high” [sic].

This was less than a year before the cryptocurrency world spectacularly imploded. From May 2022 onwards, a series of exchanges, tokens and other cryptocurrency projects collapsed in quick succession, wiping out tens of billions of dollars in supposed “value” overnight. Cryptocurrency prices and the “NFTs” market — a type of digital token that is just as useless as any other but pretends to be otherwise — sunk. Regulators weren’t just failing to regulate crypto “very, very highly”; they were asleep at the wheel. In December of that year, crypto’s most notorious criminal, the man known as SBF, was arrested on fraud and conspiracy charges, for which he would later be sentenced to 25 years in prison.

But Trump, unfortunately, is no longer right about crypto. As the market recovered, he suddenly went from “not a fan” to seeming positively passionate.

He promised last month to stop Joe Biden’s crusade to crush encryption and said he would support the right to self-custody — technical language that sounds very different from something Trump would have created on his own. “To the country’s 50 million crypto holders, I say this,” he told a crowd at a libertarian convention. “I’ll keep [Democratic senator] Elizabeth Warren and her henchmen away from your bitcoin.”

It looked suspiciously like Trump was having some deep and meaningful encounters with the cryptocurrency industry. In fact, a few weeks ago he hosted a group of bitcoin miners and industry executives at his Mar-a-Lago private members club/permanent residence. One of those present, the CEO of BTC Inc, told CNBC that “as an industry, we are committed to raising over $100 million and turning out over 5,000,000 voters for Trump’s re-election effort.” You can see why Trump might have found their arguments so persuasive.

There is not even any attempt to hide the influence buying; quite the opposite, in fact. On Tuesday, New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman has been defeated in the most expensive primary election in Democratic Party history. A vocal critic of Israel who lost to a pro-Israel rival, he also voted against pro-crypto bills. Later, Tyler Winklevoss — who along with his twin brother Cameron runs the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange — gloated to X: “Politicians everywhere need to understand that this is what happens when you pick a fight with the crypto army.”

Last week, the Winklevoss twins donated $1 million each to the Trump campaign (some of which was refunded for exceeding maximum individual contribution rules). calling him the “pro-crypto” choice. They also donated $4.9 million to a pro-crypto Super Pac – an independent fundraising committee that can receive unlimited funds from individuals, companies and other groups – called “Fairshake.” This has already come up over US$177 millionsecond only to the “Make America Great Again” super Pac, with just over US$ 178 million.

Fairshake was a major contributor to Tuesday’s New York primary, spending more than $2 million on ads targeting Bowman. Along with the Winklevii, several other cryptocurrency billionaires and their companies have contributed large sums to Fairshake, including cryptocurrency company Ripple, which donated a good $45 million; cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, with just over $45 million; and “techno-optimist“Marc Andreessen and business partner Ben Horowitz, who between them and their business donated almost US$ 70 million.

According to data compiled by AdImpact, Fairshake and its affiliated pro-crypto super pacs, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress, have already spent more than $37 million on primary ads. Many of the crypto-friendly candidates they support have gone on to win their respective House and Senate races.

We should be very concerned indeed about the influence and scale of this rapidly growing crypto lobby. After all, these lobbyists do not represent the interests of US crypto holders. Regulators are not after retail investors, but the crypto companies whose founders have made billions profiting from these retail investors.

Their loyalty to politicians seems similarly uneven. And the idea that a group of bitcoin executives can provide Trump with 5 million voters is a farce that even he should be able to see through.

jemima.kelly@ft.com

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