According to industry observers, it is unlikely that Donald Trump will be able to fulfill his campaign promise that all remaining Bitcoin will be made in the US.
“It’s a Trump-like comment, but that’s certainly not the reality,” Ethan Vera, chief operating officer at Seattle-based Luxor Technology, which provides software and services to cryptocurrency miners, told Bloomberg News.
Bitcoin is created through a process known as mining, in which operations use powerful, fuel-hungry computers to solve complicated mathematical problems used to validate transactions on the network and post them to a public ledger known as the blockchain.
Crypto mining companies that solve these problems first will be rewarded with a payment, including in Bitcoin itself, a currency whose total supply is currently limited to 21 million coins, not all of which have yet been issued.
Significant roadblocks stand in the way of Trump making good on his promise. Bitcoin mining is spreading around the world, especially in places with cheap access to abundant energy needed to power the data centers needed to mine crypto.
According to the government’s Energy Information Administration, the US is currently home to less than half of all crypto mining.
There isn’t much Trump could do to change the distribution, other than encouraging favorable regulations and energy prices to bring operators within the decentralized currency to the US. But it’s not clear how successful that would be, or how long it could last.
Moreover, a trade war with China, as Trump is proposing, would further increase costs in the US, as most miners use Chinese-made computers.
Nevertheless, the Trump campaign courted the crypto industry during his 2024 campaign, promising to make the US a “Bitcoin superpower,” with the government purchasing a strategic reserve of cryptocurrency even as Trump has crypto once dismissed as ‘based on thin air’.
Trump also vowed to remove Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who is considered an opponent within the industry.
Trump even unveiled his own crypto venture in September.
The industry, in turn, has rewarded the Trump campaign handsomely.
It contributed more than $200 million to Trump and his allies, with donations from companies involved in crypto including Ripple, Coinbase and venture capital power Andreessen Horowiz.
In December, Bitcoin reached a record high price, partly due to optimism about the incoming administration.
Crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken have also donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee.
They join inauguration donors including Amazon and Meta as the tech industry seeks to build close relationships with the new White House.
If The independent has reported that 2024 marked a sea change in tech politics, with many top industry figures, including Elon Musk, abandoning their traditional Democratic allies and backing Republicans.
