Is the Trump attack really the key driver of bitcoin prices?

Following an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump over the weekend, bitcoin (BTC-USD) prices have surged as markets digest the implications of this act of political violence. Token Bay Capital founder and managing partner Lucy Gazmararian and Gryphon Digital Mining (GRYP) CEO Rob Chang join Morning Brief to analyze the situation.

Gazmararian points out that Trump's reputation as "a crypto president" predates the recent rally. She notes that bitcoin prices had already been rebounding from lows caused by concerns over potential selling events related to the Mt. Gox repayments and the German government's transfers.

"I think it's less to do with President Trump and more... actually the main selling events that the markets were concerned about," she explains, suggesting the cryptocurrency was already poised for "healthy movement."

In contrast, Chang expresses a more direct link between Trump and crypto's prospects: "Of the two major parties, there's only one presidential candidate who's planning on speaking at the largest bitcoin conference in the world," Chang tells Yahoo Finance, referring to Trump. He believes a Trump presidency would be "more pro-cryptocurrency, and bitcoin in particular," detailing why he views Biden's policies as less favorable for the crypto industry.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Morning Brief.

This post was written by Angel Smith

Video Transcript

Bitcoin rallying this morning topping $60,000 as more traders bet on a Trump presidency following an assassination attempt on the former president over the weekend, Trump's campaign began accepting crypto donations back in May.

He's also expected to speak at a major Bitcoin conference later on this month as he looks to reposition himself as a crypto supporter for more on the state of the digital assets.

We're joined by Lucy Gas Marian, who the Token Bay capital, founder and managing partner.

Plus we've got Rob Chang, who's the Griffin digital mining ceo Great to have you both here with us this morning.

All right.

So first and foremost, here, just the price action that we're seeing in crypto right now.

How much of that do you anticipate Lucia go to you first is tied back to former president Trump and the likelihood that he might be better for crypto traders or, or holders out there.

I think the, the idea that Trump is positioning himself as a crypto president, you know, stems from before this latest rally.

If you, if you want to call it such, um you know, Bitcoins rallied around 10% in the last nine days.

I was on here talking, you know, nine days ago and we were saying, you know, how low can Bitcoin go?

And now it's actually looking a little bit more optimistic.

Um Was it the f from the German government selling?

Was it the fud from this idea that the Mount Gox trustee are going to start paying creditors back their Bitcoin and are they going to sell?

So I think those fears, the anticipation of those events has sort of passed by and now we're already seeing healthy movements in Bitcoin's price.

And as I say, it's already up 10% in the last nine days.

So I think it's less to do with President Trump and more just actually the main selling events that the market were concerned about, which was Mount Gox and the German government.

Right.

Exactly.

Our very own, Jared Bry was speaking about that earlier today as an initial catalyst.

But Rob, I want to go to you on this idea of former President Trump being the pro crypto candidate in this election as a crypto executive yourself.

Do you agree that former president Trump is the more favorable candidate for crypto president, presidential candidate?

Well, there are other, the two major parties, there's only one presidential candidate who's planning on speaking at the largest Bitcoin conference in the world and that's coming up in a couple of weeks, we look forward to seeing him there.

And uh that's certainly where he's positioned himself as being pro Cryptocurrency.

And frankly, if we take a look at the past four years, there's something that we, we, uh, I guess fondly called Operation Chokepoint where the government has enacted various things where it has made things difficult for crypto crypto companies.

And so we do not expect President Trump or potential future President Trump to enact things of that nature and in fact, be more pro Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin in particular.

And we've seen that he's accepted cryptocurrencies as part of his donations.

And we suspect that of the two candidates, primary candidates, he would be one of the more Cryptocurrency with the positive ones.

You said there were less favorable policies surrounding crypto during the Biden administration.

Like what?

Well, there, there have been certain things that we've noticed.

For example, we've seen some bank accounts for some banks, uh make decisions for risk, risk reasons to shut down bank accounts.

We've seen that several times.

We've seen the shutdown of Signature bank, which was probably the primary bank of many of the currency players for various reasons.

Although many of us suspect that it's possibly also because it is a pro Cryptocurrency bank.

And we've seen things of that nature go through the system and it's made the bank crisis though, correct.

That wasn't a Biden administration policy.

It was a, it wasn't certainly a broader banking crisis issue, but we certainly believe that a part of the reason why signature was taken down was also because it was a Cryptocurrency friendly bank.

Ok. That's interesting.

I mean, especially given the run on those banks as well.

And so they didn't have liquidity to ultimately ensure that they could insure deposits.

So uh that's where we did see much of the consolidation effort that took place afterwards.

So not necessarily tied to administration efforts but trying to sure up confidence in the banking system, which actually brings me to this next question, which is what would the strength of the US dollar look like if there was a more favorable crypto first type of mindset from whoever takes office.

And and if that is former president Trump Lucy, I'll go to you and, and I wanna give you a chance to respond as well, Rob.

Yeah, I mean, I think this is, you know, it's the prime use case for crypto which is Stablecoins and in crypto circles, there's always been confusion.

Why is this not an opportunity that the US authorities government have really seized?

Because if they get the Stablecoin which is backed by the US dollar into the house of millions and hundreds of millions to billions of the global population who previously could not access the US dollar because they could not be banked by the US banking system.

Then that's an incredibly powerful position for the US government to put themselves in.

So it's, it's a big question mark in crypto circles, why they haven't seized that opportunity and really to solidify its status as the world's reserve currency because stablecoins are incredibly important.

It's really the oil that keeps the whole crypto economy moving.

Rob.

I want to give you a chance to respond as well here.

What is the reality of, if, if we can continue to see a surge in Cryptocurrency asset holdings, then what does that mean for the US dollar here?

And, and the coexistence of the two in strength?

Yeah.

Well, I, I first thing I think is I think the cat's out of the bag.

It's, I think certain cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin in particular will certainly take its place as pretty much another currency in the world.

Just one that happens to not be associated with a particular government that being said, I believe that the US dollar status as the reserve currency in the world will likely remain unchallenged.

It just has yet another partner, so to speak, to work with just like the British pound, the yen and whatnot.

And, and, and if anything, I think the, the US should really be embracing as, as our colleague just said, uh the, the the use of Bitcoin because any country that embraces Bitcoin will have a uh a leg up, so to speak on the future of global commerce where I believe that a lot of commerce will eventually be traded among cryptocurrencies.

So countries that do embrace it will certainly have a uh a an advantage relative to those that do not.

All right.

Well, we gotta leave it there, but thank you both so much for joining us for this panel.

We appreciate it.

That was Lucy Gas Mara and Token Bay Capital, founder and managing partner.

We also said Rob Chang Griffin, Digital Mining CEO.