Donald Trump, once a Bitcoin skeptic, declares support for crypto in Truth Social post

Former President and current 2024 leading Republican candidate Donald Trump voiced his clearest support of crypto yet today in a post on Truth Social that he shared shortly before his scheduled appearance at the Libertarian National Convention. 

"I am very positive and open minded to cryptocurrency companies, and all things related to this new and burgeoning industry. Our country must be the leader in the field," wrote Trump, except in his characteristic capital letters. "There is no second place," he added before comparing himself to Biden, who Trump says wants the crypto industry to "die a slow and painful death." 

In recent years, Trump had voiced skepticism of cryptocurrencies when compared to the U.S. dollar. "The currency of this world should be the dollar. And I don't think we should have all of the Bitcoins of the world out there. I think they should regulate them very, very high," Trump said in a 2021 interview with Fox Business. 

However, following a successful foray into Trump-branded NFT trading cards (some of which, the "Mugshot Edition NFTs" earned the holders the chance to have dinner with the Donald after a trial date) and with crypto policy coming up as a significant issue on the campaign trail in recent weeks, Trump appears ready to stake out a position as the pro-crypto candidate. 

Trump's comments come on the eve of his address to the Libertarian National Convention Saturday night, where he may try to sway voters away from supporting third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has frequently espoused pro-crypto and anti-regulation views. The post also comes just days after the Trump campaign launched a tool to let contributors donate in cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, ether, solana, dogecoin and shiba inu.