Cryptocurrency is now on the campaign trail in an official capacity, extending beyond throwaway lines to appease whatever voting demographic and fundraising PAC needs to be appeased that day. The shred of legitimacy the industry has been begging for since its inception has arrived, personified in an orange man at a conference about an orange coin.

I’m no political strategist, but I’ve always found it odd when presidential candidates spend time campaigning in states they have no risk of losing. Trump, or any Republican candidate, is not going to lose Tennessee in the 2024 presidential election (let’s face it, folks: Joe Biden is not Bill Clinton). And yet, Trump is stopping by a Bitcoin conference in the Volunteer State during the hugely busy campaign season, the same way a candidate makes campaign speeches in airplane hangars for the military vote and in front of factories on behalf of blue-collar America, with truck drivers in tow, for the union vote.

Trump’s appearance in Nashville has a clear message: the content of the conference is more important than the location. There are enough single-issue crypto voters out there to make a difference for Trump.

(At least, enough if you take into account the possible donations from the crypto rich: a Trump fundraiser at the event costs more than $800,000 per seat.)

Republicans have been jostling (against… no one, except maybe independents or libertarians) to be seen as the pro-crypto party in the United States. One example is the preemptive party official anti-CBDC statements by people like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (perhaps to appear anti-China and pro-capitalism). Another is the House of Representatives vote effort to override President Biden’s veto of a pro-crypto resolution that is falling through neatly along party lines (except one Republican dissenter and some bipartisan support from 21 Democrats).

To me, it seems like this election cycle, crypto is standing out as a feather in the cap to the individual liberty talking point that GOP voters love, to the point where Trump has completely backed off his anti-crypto rhetoric. In 2019, Trump tweeted: “I’m not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrenciesthat are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated crypto assets can facilitate illegal behavior, including drug trafficking and other illegal activities…” Then in 2021, he said Bitcoin is a fraud against the dollar” during an interview with Fox Business.

Clearly, there are votes to be won and Trump wants them.

We’re about to get a good dose of reality. Let’s say there are 50 million cryptocurrency holders, as Coinbase suggests. They’re all really single-issue voters?

But you don’t even need that to win.

He’s right. I’m claiming that the 2024 US presidential election will be decided by something like 100,000 votes (not the popular vote, of course, I mean net votes in the battleground states) and therefore if a candidate wants to win, he needs as many votes as he can get in the high-risk areas. And because President Biden seems to have no interest in engaging with or courting the crypto vote (a significant misstep, in my opinion, as appearing pro-crypto isn’t enough to turn people around) off a candidate, as long as the positioning is correct), every single-issue cryptocurrency voter will likely vote for Trump and try to influence those around them to also vote for Trump.

So it makes perfect sense that the Republican Party believes cryptocurrencies are a worthwhile place to win some of those crucial votes.

What’s more, the conference is a spectacle that people are traveling to Tennessee for. Trump won’t be speaking to Tennessee voters, he’ll be speaking to a geographically diverse (dare I say… decentralized?) cross-section of American voters (that is, if you can get Bitcoiners to vote…).

It just makes so much sense. Crypto is clearly solidified in the mainstream. And even as crypto is weird, American politics has been weird, too. And the weirdness will continue: it will be weird to have Secret Service agents stationed at the Bitcoin conference, it will be weird that the mainstream media (and not just your financial or tech reporters) will be there to cover the proceedings, and it will be weird when President Trump says again that he wants all remaining Bitcoin to be Made in America.

I think when things get weird, weird becomes professional.

Please note: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates.

UPDATE (July 15, 2024, 17:02 UTC): Adds details about the fundraiser.

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