Controversial trend forecaster and publisher of the Trends Journal, Gerald Celente, has shared an interesting yet troubling thesis regarding Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent performance in an April 18 YouTube video.
Namely, the veteran business consultant reflected on the fact that cryptocurrency executives and lobbyists made significant donations to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign — as well as his inaugural fund.
Celente harkened back to what happened with consumer electronics and semiconductor stocks — citing the contributions made by the industry as the key reason why the White House’s tariff policy took a favorable turn for their interests.
To put it succinctly, and in Celente’s own words:
“The Silicon con men gave Trump all that dough, right? And then what did he do? He changed the tariff deal for computers and smartphones…”
The forecaster also claimed that the same thing is what is keeping Bitcoin afloat — in other words, that insiders are propping up Bitcoin:
“The Trump gang… gave him a lot of crypto. The crypto people gave him a lot of dough.”
Lastly, the forecaster reiterated his bullish stance on BTC, but also warned that gold has taken the shine out of cryptocurrencies.
Claiming insider ties are propping up BTC is an exaggeration, at best
First things first — context matters. To call Celente a pessimist would be quite an understatement, as the forecaster has consistently been predicting the collapse of civil society owing to a global economic crisis since the early 1990s.
At press time, Bitcoin was changing hands at a price of $86,830 — some 14.67% lower than the $101,760 seen at the time of Trump’s inauguration. For reference, the S&P 500 has lost 12.67% in the same timeframe, so if insider ties are propping up Bitcoin, they’re doing a rather shoddy job of it.
Moreover, although positive, the Trump administration’s approach to the cryptocurrency industry, from the delayed resolution of the Ripple v. SEC case to the decision to only include seized assets in the strategic crypto reserve, paints a much more nuanced picture than Celente’s appraisal would suggest.
Watch the full video here:
Featured image via Shutterstock
