President Donald Trump's campaign announced Tuesday that it will begin accepting donations in cryptocurrencies as part of an effort to build what it calls a “crypto army” ahead of Election Day.
The Trump campaign has launched a fundraising page that allows any federally recognized donor to donate to political committees using any crypto assets accepted through the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange.
The announcement furthers the message that President Trump is a crypto-friendly candidate and also appeals to a core group of young male voters who are increasingly likely to dabble in digital assets. ing. This comes during a hiatus from defending Trump in his hush money lawsuit in New York.
Cryptocurrency is a digital asset that can be traded over the internet without relying on the global banking system.
The Trump campaign accepts a wide range of popular cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, and USD Coin, as well as lower-value coins that tend to be popular with internet celebrities, such as Shiba Inu Coin and Dogecoin.
The most famous is billionaire Elon Musk, who is believed to be a fan of the latter two, which are traded on the market as DOGE and SHIB.
It is unclear whether the Trump campaign will continue to hold the cryptocurrencies, sell them immediately, and what fees they will pay for liquidation. The campaign says it intends to abide by U.S. election laws, but the anonymity of cryptocurrencies could make it difficult to verify whether the funds are coming from the person in question.
Trump has already personally received millions of dollars in cryptocurrency through the Trump Digital Trading Card non-fungible token project and the MAGA coin released last August.
Coinbase spokeswoman Julia Krieger told The Associated Press that “cryptocurrencies are bipartisan and move money forward because they're cheaper and faster,” adding that the Coinbase platform is open to all candidates this election season. He added that
Representatives for President Joe Biden's campaign did not respond to AP's request for comment on whether the campaign will begin accepting cryptocurrency donations.
Although some states do not allow cryptocurrency donations in state elections under current campaign finance laws, the Federal Election Commission allows the commission to accept Bitcoin as donations.
An advisory opinion issued by the commission in 2014 stated that Bitcoin is “money or something of value” in the legal sense, and that political committees should consider Bitcoin's market value at the time of receiving the donation. It concludes that donations should be evaluated based on
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign is now accepting donations in Bitcoin.
In traditional funding, Mr. Biden and the Democratic National Committee announced Monday that they raised more than $51 million in April, far short of the $76 million that Mr. Trump and the Republican Party reported raising in the same month.
