Donald Trump's stance on Bitcoin is changing, says 'many people are embracing it'

Former United States President Donald Trump and the leading Republican candidate for November’s election appears to be warming toward Bitcoin BTC -0.46% , having been critical of cryptocurrencies in the past.

In January, Trump said he'll “never allow” central bank digital currency issuance in the U.S. if elected. “Such a currency would give the federal government, our federal government, absolute control over your money… They could take your money and you wouldn’t even know it was gone,” he warned at the time.

In a recent town hall on Fox News, alongside South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, Trump was asked if the next logical step was for him to embrace Bitcoin, given that it’s decentralized, the government can't get its hands on it and all the young people who are particularly interested in it, host Laura Ingraham suggested.

“I always liked one currency. I call it a currency. I like the dollar, but a lot of people are doing it [Bitcoin] and frankly, it's taken on a life of its own,” Trump replied. “You probably have to do some regulation, as you know, but many people are embracing it. And more and more, I'm seeing people wanting to pay Bitcoin, and you're seeing something that's interesting, so I can live with it one way or the other.”

Some Bitcoiners attributed the remarks to pro-Bitcoin Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican candidate who backed Trump after dropping out of the U.S. Presidential race in January and contender for Trump's Vice President pick. The founder of biotech company Roivant Sciences has been both an advocate for the crypto industry and against the implementation of CBDCs.

Donald Trump's changing views on crypto

Back in June 2021, Trump seemed to be much more critical of Bitcoin, declaring that "it just seems like a scam" in another interview with Fox News.

"Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam. I was surprised — you know, with us, it was at $6,000 and, much lower. I don't like it because it's another currency competing against the dollar, essentially it's a currency competing against the dollar. I want the dollar to be the currency of the world," he said at the time.

As President in 2019, Trump also blasted Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. "I'm not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air," Trump said.

However, Trump has since gone on to promote his own nonfungible tokens, including a trading card collection in December 2022 and a “Mugshot Edition” of the collection in December last year. Blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence said that a crypto portfolio it believes to be owned by Trump sold 1,075 ETH, worth about $2.4 million at the time, in the same month.