Trump's speech on Bitcoin aims to secure crypto backing as Harris gains traction.

• On Saturday afternoon, the largest bitcoin conference of the year is being headlined by former president Donald Trump in Nashville.
• The Republican presidential nominee will also host a fundraiser in Nashville, with ticket prices reaching $844,600.
• The organizers of the Bitcoin 2024 conference disclosed that they had briefly discussed having Vice President Kamala Harris attend the event, but she ultimately declined.

The 2024 presidential race is in full swing as frontline fintech adopters gather at the biggest conference of the year, with former president Donald Trump headlining the event.

The Republican presidential nominee will also host a fundraiser in Nashville, with tickets costing up to $844,600. In June, BTC Inc. CEO David Bailey, who organized the conference, promised to raise $100 million and mobilize more than 5,000,000 voters for the Trump re-election campaign, as the bitcoin industry increasingly aligns with the Trump administration.

Trump's recent speech to the bitcoin community is the culmination of a months-long effort to win over the crypto community. This includes accepting donations in virtual tokens, opposing President Biden's "war on crypto," and advocating for all future bitcoin to be made in America. This shift in stance by the Republican presidential nominee is quite significant.

In July 2019, Trump publicly dismissed bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, stating that their value was "based on thin air" and warning that unregulated crypto assets could facilitate illegal activities, including the drug trade.

"In a 2021 phone interview with Fox, he stated that Bitcoin appeared to be a scam and he disliked it because it was another currency trying to rival the dollar."

In his conversation with Fox, Trump stated that he has always believed the dollar should be the global currency.

In five years, after losing a presidential election and receiving millions of dollars from the crypto lobby, the Republican presidential nominee is now the keynote speaker at the largest bitcoin conference in Nashville, which began on Thursday.

The Republican Party is working to make crypto regulation a voting issue in November, as Trump shifts his stance on Bitcoin and inflation consistently ranks as a top voter priority in polls.

With the increasing influence of crypto lobbyists and supporters in Washington, there is speculation about whether the Democratic Party will maintain its strict regulatory stance or soften its stance.

The organizers of the Bitcoin 2024 conference say they had briefly discussed having Vice President Kamala Harris attend the event, but she ultimately declined. However, billionaire businessman Mark Cuban posted on X that the Harris campaign had reached out with questions about crypto, indicating that the vice president may be considering this space and potentially determining where her policies could land if elected president.

Trump's 180 on bitcoin

The influx of interest and cash from the country's top tech talent has coincided with a recent thaw in Trump's sentiment towards the digital asset space.

Over $4 million has been raised through a combination of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ether, USDC, and memecoins, with contributors from 12 states, including some battlegrounds.

The Winklevoss twins, crypto billionaires and venture investors, led the charge in donating to the campaign, each contributing 15.57 bitcoin, or about $1 million at the time, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission. However, they received a partial refund because their contributions exceeded the $844,600 limit.

Millions of venture capitalists who support cryptocurrency have also pledged their support to the Trump campaign.

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) informed their employees that they plan to make substantial contributions to political action committees supporting Trump's campaign. The partners of Sequoia Capital are also backing Trump, as is venture investor David Sacks, who helped the former president raise $12 million at a fundraiser he hosted in his San Francisco home. The chief legal officers for centralized crypto exchange and blockchain giant Ripple were both present.

The tech elite are also significantly funding pro-crypto super PACs, such as Fairshake, which has raised over $200 million to elect pro-crypto candidates across the political spectrum.

According to NBC News, the vice president's team is attempting to win over support from some undecided big tech donors who remained neutral during President Biden's campaign. With the vice president now the de facto nominee for the party, their tune may be changing.

It helps that Harris has a long track record in California.

For years, she has been raising funds in the tech community, specifically from individuals working at companies such as Google, Facebook, and Apple.

"Steve Westly, a venture capitalist and former gubernatorial candidate for California, told NBC News that the recent pivot in the last three days has been dramatic. He added that he has never seen such a surge of enthusiasm in any campaign he has been involved with."

On Monday, JD Vance, Trump's running mate for vice president, will host a fundraiser in Palo Alto.