We've gotta talk about Republicans and crypto

Tl;dr: Don't vote based on your bags. Republicans aren't the crypto boosters everyone makes them out to be, and the way Trump has used crypto as a grift to make money just reinforces existing stereotypes about crypto being scammy.

I know, I know. We're all saturated with politics and election crap right now and we're tired of it. Me too. But I hear the idea that "Republicans are the pro-crypto party" all the time and it's just not true.

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First, Republicans aren't uniformly supportive of crypto and Democrats aren't uniformly against it. My no-talent ass clown of a Senator (Roger Marshall) is a hardcore MAGA Republican but wildly anti-crypto. He called crypto a "threat to our national security" and co-sponsored a bill with Elizabeth Warren to make stricter AML/KYC regulations. During the FTX debacle he even suggested that the SEC shut down all crypto transactions in the US. Saying that Democrats aren't supportive of crypto isn't true either. When you look at the list of congressional candidates endorsed by Stand With Crypto, half of them (19/39) are Democrats. Not to mention that Democrats incorporated some crypto-supportive events into the DNC convention and Anthony Scaramucci has reportedly been working with Kamala Harris to develop pro-crypto policies. Saying Republicans are the more crypto-supportive party may have been true 5 years ago, but that has changed.

Secondly, we've got to talk about Trump. Saying that Trump is pro-crypto is like saying a bank robber is pro-unmarked bills. His recent "pro-crypto" turn is at best a flip-flop and at worst a grift. In 2019 he said that Bitcoin was "based on thin air" and as recently as December of 2021, he called crypto "dangerous" and a "scam." (And he would know!) But recently crypto has been very kind to him. One of his wallets has almost $6 million in it.

Not to be too much of a conspiracy theorist, but It really seems like after Melania Trump made an unspecified (large) amount of money on a bunch of NFT projects in 2021 and 2022, Donald suddenly changed his tune on crypto and started issuing a bunch of NFTs himself. When the NFT market dried up, he pivoted and was collecting 2% of every transaction on shitcoins called things like "Trump Bucks" and "Save America" netting him at least a half million dollars. And of course don't forget about his newest scam DeFi project World Liberty Financial, where 75% of all protocol revenue goes to the Trump family (who also has no liability) and who couldn't keep their own website running during the rollout even though there wasn't much interest in the project.

I'm sure it's clear how I feel about him, and if you want to vote for him, be my guest. But don't do it because you think he's "pro-crypto" and will pump your bags if he's elected.

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It seems pretty clear that he has no idea what crypto is or how it works. He can't work a crypto wallet well enough to buy a burger with it, tweeted that he'll make sure Bitcoin is "made in the USA" and stumbled through a recent interview, saying:

"It's so important. It's crypto. It's AI. It's so many other things. AI needs tremendous electricity capabilities beyond anything I ever heard."

At the very best, he doesn't give a shit and will forget about and ignore it once it stops making him money, which effectively gives other countries the ability to set crypto regulation and reinforces the stereotype that crypto is super scammy. This point has been made over and over, but if we want the industry to grow sustainably for the long-term, we need clear, effective regulation, not benign neglect.

Edit: moved the tl;dr to the top and added a few lines.