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In his take from this Monday, Nikolaus argued that Donald Trump is heavily pro-Bitcoin. I beg to differ.

Yes, Trump is providing lip service to Bitcoiners, which is more than we can say of Kamala Harris. The fact that he spoke at the Bitcoin conference is certainly interesting, and at least indicates that he’s aware of the “crypto voter” as a potential voting block. And yes, Trump did show up at PubKey, which was a fun little stunt— though he apparently wasn’t even able to make the payment himself.

But it’s blatantly obvious he just wants your money and your vote. Of course, the same can be said for most politicians, but if anything, Trump is a more extreme example of this. He’ll basically scam you for it if he must, whether it’s through these ridiculous NFTs, or with whatever his new shitcoin project is supposed to be.

I’m not at all convinced that Trump will continue to be an ally of Bitcoin if he does get elected for a second term. Even at Bitcoin 2024, his closing remarks —“have fun with your crypto, and Bitcoin, and all the other things you play with”— made clear he doesn’t actually care about Bitcoin in any real way. Indeed, just a few years ago, Trump said he was “not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air”.

Right now, Trump needs your money and your vote— but he won’t need that anymore after he is elected. Even if you want to take seriously his blabberings like “miners get all the electricity they need for mining”, is there any reason to believe he won’t throw Bitcoin under the bus the moment that benefits him… most obviously, in favor of the dollar?

Given Trump’s track record of broken campaign promises in his first term, I wouldn’t expect anything else.

​ Trump is providing lip service to Bitcoiners, but that does not mean he will continue to be an ally of Bitcoin if he does get elected for a second term. 

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Last night, I had the distinct pleasure of having an in-depth conversation with Jeff Booth, who I often refer to as the Eckhart Tolle of Bitcoin.

Booth, soft-spoken yet direct, harped on one point in particular in the conversation that, while at first I didn’t grasp, ended up resonating deeply with me.

He said multiple times “We are Bitcoin” in efforts to drive home the point that Bitcoin will continue to work if we continue to make it work.

At first this statement seemed antithetical to Bitcoin. Technically, of course, we’re not Bitcoin. Bitcoin is an open-source protocol that allows people to transfer value securely and permissionlessly. Also, Bitcoin was designed in a way that actually requires less human involvement than the traditional monetary and financial systems, as its inflation rate can’t be altered by humans and there are no middle people involved in Bitcoin transactions.

Yet we are Bitcoin, just as Booth said.

We are the ones that have to spin up nodes to keep the network decentralized.

We are the ones that plug in the miners to help power and secure the network.

And we are the ones who educate others about Bitcoin as well as defend it in the social arena.

We’re human nodes in the network, doing our part to technically keep Bitcoin running and propagating information about Bitcoin to the world.

Without our taking responsibility as human nodes, Bitcoin becomes less decentralized, less secure and less understood.

So, if you’re reading this, know that you are Bitcoin, a component of the most incredible system for human freedom and prosperity ever created, and both savor that and act accordingly.

​ A seemingly contradictory, yet profound message from Jeff Booth… 

Nothing stops this train.

No, I’m not talking about the Federal Reserve money printer, I’m talking about the string of ETF announcements from Wall Street and the related crypto firms servicing it this week.

I’m talking about today’s hybrid Ethereum-Bitcoin ETF, yesterday’s XRP ETF, and what will likely be 2025’s basket memecoin ETF offering exposure to everything from PEPE to GIGA to HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu.

If you’re takeaway from the arguably dismal ETH ETF launch is that there won’t be more crypto ETFs, I’m sorry but you’re looking past the $1 trillion price tag on the rest of the crypto industry.

Wall Street wants to sell products that make U.S. dollars, and they will continue to do things that make dollars.

OK, in a bear market, maybe that’s not an Ethereum ETF. But it’s hard to imagine that in a world where the U.S. regulatory environment continues to become “more advantageous to the industry,” and there aren’t 15 to 20 of these ETFs all pumping in a bull market.

Maybe you’ve forgotten how in 2017 XRP pumped to $4 or DASH to $700, how in 2021, JPEGs sold for hundreds of millions. Newsflash: 80% of ETF purchasers are retail buyers, and that’s according to Blackrock.

Maybe you think all our proselytizing to the likes of Rick Rubin has seeped somehow into the collective consciousness. Maybe you’re betting on Kamala Harris getting elected, and that she will continue to let Gary Gensler and the SEC run roughshod over crypto.

Fair enough. That’s not a world I see. The Bitcoin-crypto voter constituency is here, and whether it delivers the election to Donald Trump, or it wins concessions from the Harris administration, that means more ETFs, not less. Certainly not a world where there’s only a Bitcoin ETF anytime soon.

Again, Wall Street is not embracing the tao of Michael Saylor, they don’t see President Nayib Bukele as a developing world savant. They do not believe Bitcoin is a bulwark against money printing, and no it doesn’t matter that they are writing research reports to the effect.

They will say whatever they can to sell ETFs, to make USD.

Because they are not convicted buyers. They are convicted sellers. There’s a difference. 

​ Wall Street wants to sell products that make U.S. dollars, and they will continue to do things that make dollars.