The anti-crypto tweets submitted by President Donald Trump on July 11 is still causing many people to see red. Several crypto investors and analysts working within the space have taken to social media to blast the President and his alleged “lack of knowledge” on crypto.
Trump Makes It Clear: He Doesn’t Like Crypto
Three days ago, President Trump tweeted:
I am not a fan of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated crypto assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.
Among the people to fight back were Tyler Winklevoss, one of the founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange in New York. In response to the President’s message, Tyler explains:
We have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical framework that is free of politics and human error.
Journalist Emily Parker, wrote that up until this point, bitcoin had been relatively unaffected by Trump, but she’s worried this may soon change. Her message states:
Trump just tweeted about bitcoin for the first time… Until now, bitcoin has been relatively immune to the Trump news cycle… We’ll see if that changes.
Coin Center’s Neeraj K. Agrawal comments that a society without cryptocurrency and bitcoin becomes a “surveillance society,” while finance writer David Gokhshtein stated confidently that bitcoin is likely to “replace gold” in the coming years.
While it’s hard to say for sure what will happen following the Twitter rampage, it’s hard to dismiss the idea that President Trump might have made a mistake with his recent comments. For one thing, there is a very large community of individuals that have invested their time, money and efforts into cryptocurrencies. This community is likely made up of both Democrats and Republicans, and it’s possible Trump is angering people within his own party.
Second, if what Preston Byrne suggests is correct and Trump is only writing these tweets based on suggestions from his advisors, this could be an even bigger mistake. One could take this as a lack of personal judgement. Rather, it’s simply parroting what one is told, which up to this point, seemed to go against Trump’s personality and leadership.
Will Bitcoin Suffer Further?
Donald Trump has always been outspoken and unafraid to speak his mind, so if these are indeed the words of his advisors and not of himself, he’s likely to take some flack and look “more like a politician” to audiences.
In the long run, however, we must remember that Trump’s words are based on opinion rather than fact, and that over the past few months, bitcoin has exhibited a newfound maturity that has allowed it to withstand several blows. Thus, we cannot assume that the end of bitcoin is near following the tweets.
