Will Trump make bitcoin great again?

Bitcoin prices skyrocketed to a six-week high after Trump pledged to embrace the cryptocurrency if he wins the US election

Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville
(Image credit: Brett Carlsen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Bitcoin prices hit a six-week high after Donald Trump threw his weight behind the crypto industry, say Jack Simpson and Dan Milmo in The Guardian. The Republican presidential candidate told delegates at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Tennessee that he would end the “persecution” of crypto by regulators. He also suggested that instead of selling bitcoin that is seized in police raids, the government could keep them as part of a national stockpile. 

Trump’s pledge that “on day one” he will fire Gary Gensler, chair of the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), drew particularly strong applause from the crowd. Gensler has described bitcoin as “primarily a speculative, volatile asset that’s also used for illicit activity including ransomware, money laundering, sanction evasion and terrorist financing”. 

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.