Donald Trump says his campaign will accept crypto

Former United States President Donald Trump, currently facing criminal charges in four jurisdictions in the country, announced his campaign to run for president in 2024 would accept cryptocurrency donations.

In a May 21 notice, the Trump 2024 campaign said it had launched a fundraising page for eligible people to donate in crypto using the Coinbase Commerce product. The website featured logos for Bitcoin BTCUSD, Ether ETHUSD, Dogecoin DOGEUSD, Shiba Inu SHIBUSD, XRPUSD, USD Coin USDCUSD, Solana SOLUSD and 0x (ZRX). The announcement cited Senator Elizabeth Warren’s attacks on cryptocurrency, claiming without evidence that she was acting as U.S. President Joe Biden’s “official surrogate” in Congress.

During a May 8 dinner for supporters who purchased a nonfungible token featuring a mugshot at his surrender in a Georgia jail, Trump said he would ensure attendees could make donations to his campaign in crypto. With less than six months until Election Day, Trump is the presumptive Republican Party nominee for U.S. President in 2024. He will likely face off against President Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee.

On May 15, Trump responded to a challenge from President Biden, agreeing to meet on June 27 and Sept. 10 for televised debates on CNN and ABC, respectively. Though the terms have yet to be finalized, the debates could mark the first time the two candidates face off against each other in person since 2020, when Trump lost the election to Biden.

Despite accepting crypto donations, Trump’s ‘issues’ page on his campaign website did not specifically mention digital assets or blockchain at the time of publication. President Biden has rarely issued public statements on crypto but did sign an executive order to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets in 2022.

Trump’s crypto donation announcement came as the jury in his New York criminal trial prepared for deliberations, expected next week. The former president has been required to appear in person in a Manhattan courtroom for allegedly falsifying business documents for a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He also faces charges in Georgia and the District of Columbia for allegedly attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election and in Florida for allegedly mishandling classified documents.

In 2021, after leaving office, Trump said Bitcoin “just seems like a scam,” and he preferred the U.S. dollar to be the “currency of the world.” However, before Trump became the likely Republican candidate, digital asset policies sometimes took center stage as rivals Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis issued statements on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Trump said in a January 2024 campaign event that he would never allow for the creation of a CBDC in the United States.

The crypto donations come as political action committees (PACs) supporting Trump have reportedly been footing the bills for some of his criminal and civil cases.

In February, a judge ordered $355 million in disgorgement against Trump and his companies, finding them liable for fraud. In January, a New York judge ordered the former president to pay more than $83 million related to a defamation lawsuit brought by author E. Jean Carroll. In May 2023, a jury also found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation against Carroll, ordering $5 million in damages.