After reportedly meeting with several Bitcoin (BTC) miners at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, during which he promised support for Bitcoin mining if elected into the White House, former United States President Donald Trump had more to say on the matter.
Specifically, Trump expressed his view that “Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against a CBDC,” referring to the earlier announced central bank digital currency that many believe threatens the nation’s economy, in a post on his Truth Social account shared on June 12.
CBDC issue in the US
As a reminder, CBDCs have become a point of contention in US politics, with Congressman Tom Emmer warning that they might be “CCP-style surveillance tool” out to “destroy the American way of life” as he was presenting his CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, arguing that:
“With this legislation, we are going to stop unelected bureaucrats in the Biden Administration from using a central bank digital currency that threatens to destroy the American way of life.”
Back in January, the (repeat) presidential hopeful pledged he would “never allow a CBDC,” or digitized or tokenized form of currency issued and regulated by the central bank with the underlying technology possibly involving blockchain, if he returned to the White House, stating that:
“Tonight, I’m also making another promise to protect Americans from government tyranny. As your president, I will never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency.”
CBDCs around the world
Meanwhile, a growing number of countries around the world are actively exploring CBDCs, with over 100 of them in various phases of this process – either research, development, or pilot stage – last year, according to the data acquired by Finbold back in July 2023.
In October, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) announced it was advancing its digital euro project, despite ECB president Christine Lagarde earlier triggering privacy concerns after stating that the Eurozone’s CBDC “will not be completely anonymous.”
