While there’s been bipartisan support for carving out bitcoin from capital gains tax for some years, Trump’s new pro-bitcoin position couldn’t come at a more important moment for potential widespread adaption in the US – especially since his sudden 180 degree on the topic, in the midst of virtually the entire country understanding his new-found affection for cryptocurrencies and blockchain, makes his views on the issues extremely persuasive on the Trump campaign’s partisan grounds. The current administration’s cozy relationship with big finance has caused immense scandal and, with regard to bitcoin, US currency, a huge regulatory overreach. All of which has further inoculated the push for a different regulatory approach to cryptos like bitcoin from the same scornful response it would have gotten from the Obama administration.
Even though Trump would have only indirect control over such a process, his statements and the larger shift in elite thinking on bitcoin as money form part of a broader dynamic. Trump’s use of the term ‘money’ to describe bitcoin could lead to a cascade of important developments in the way that cryptocurrencies become integrated into everyday commerce and financial transactions. For one, it would make regulation and taxation much simpler. Moreover, its status as money might have broader implications extending beyond the mere labelling of bitcoin. Viewing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as money is not just an interesting opinion, but is mostly compatible with new technologies and could be key to how digital technologies reshape economic interactions. This is important and not just because states are more likely to tolerate what they consider to be ‘money’ than other forms of payments. Trump’s statements could set in motion important policy shifts towards cryptocurrencies in the coming months.
Source: Forbes
