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Donald Trump seeks to attract followers of alternative finance. His campaign will now accept crypto assets
Donald Trump The presidential campaign announced Tuesday that it would begin accepting cryptocurrency donations as part of an effort to build what it calls a “cryptocurrency army” before Election Day.
The Trump campaign has launched a fundraising page that allows “any federally authorized donor to give” to its political committees using any crypto asset accepted through the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange.
The ad promotes Trump’s message that he is a pro-cryptocurrency candidate, and also appeals to a core of young male voters who are increasingly likely to get into digital assets. It came like Trump’s the defense relied on its secret money case At New York.
Cryptocurrencies are a digital asset that can be traded over the internet without relying on the global banking system.
Trump’s campaign accepts a range of popular cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether and US Dollar Coin, as well as low-denomination coins that tend to be popular with internet personalities such as Shiba Inu Coin and Dogecoin .
Billionaire Elon Musknotably, is considered a fan of the latter two, traded on exchanges such as DOGE and SHIB.
It’s unclear whether the Trump campaign will hold onto the crypto or immediately sell it, or what kind of fees it might pay for its liquidation. Although the campaign says it wants to follow U.S. election laws, the anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies can make it difficult to confirm that funds come from who they claim to be.
Trump has already personally received millions of dollars in cryptocurrency through his Trump Digital Trading Cards non-fungible token projects and his MAGA coin, launched last August.
Julia Krieger, a spokesperson for Coinbase, told the Associated Press that “crypto is nonpartisan and moves money because it’s cheaper and faster,” adding that the Coinbase platform is open to everyone candidates this election season.
A representative for President Joe Biden’s campaign did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment on whether it would begin accepting cryptocurrency donations.
Although some states do not allow cryptocurrency donations in state races under existing campaign finance laws, the Federal Election Commission allows committees to receive bitcoin as contributions.
A 2014 advisory opinion issued by the commission concluded that bitcoin is “money or something of value” within the meaning of the law and that political committees should evaluate the contribution based on the market value of bitcoin at the time the contribution is received.
The presidential campaign for the independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. currently accepting bitcoin donations.
In conventional currency, Biden and the Democratic National Committee said Monday that they raised more than $51 million in April, well below the $76 million that Trump and the Republican Party reported raising for the month.