A pro-Trump PAC has received millions in crypto donations since June
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
- A pro-Trump PAC has raised more than $7.5 million in cryptocurrency donations since June.
- Trump 47 PAC raised the amount in bitcoin, ether, USDC, and other cryptocurrencies, per FEC filings.
- The former president has positioned himself as the pro-crypto candidate this election cycle.
A political action committee called Trump 47 has raised $7.5 million in cryptocurrency donations for former President Donald Trump's White House bid.
According to Federal Election Commission filings on Tuesday, the Trump 47 PAC received donations in bitcoin, ether, XRP, and other cryptocurrencies.
Notable donors include Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who endorsed Trump back in June. At the time, the twins called the former president "pro-bitcoin, pro-crypto, and pro-business."
Records of these crypto donation figures were released just as Trump launched his own crypto banking platform, World Liberty Financial, on Tuesday.
Some 20 billion digital tokens priced at 1.5 cents each were put on sale on Tuesday. As of Tuesday evening, around 3% of the on-sale tokens had been bought, bringing the sales to around $300 million, per the AFP.
The former president has been positioning himself as the pro-crypto candidate this election cycle. But he hasn't always been this positive about crypto.
In June 2021, Trump called bitcoin a "scam" during an interview with Fox Business.
"I don't like it because it's another currency competing against the dollar," Trump said in the interview.
He added: "I want the dollar to be the currency of the world, that's what I've always said."
In another interview on Fox Business in August 2021, Trump said he thought crypto "hurts the United States currency," adding that it could be a "disaster waiting to happen."
"They may be fake. Who knows what they are," Trump said of cryptocurrencies.
But in May, Trump hosted an event in Mar-a-Lago, where he said he would accept cryptocurrency donations for his campaign.
In July, the former president also said at the annual Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville that he believes cryptocurrency is "the steel industry of 100 years ago."
"I think you're just in your infancy," Trump told the meeting of crypto industry leaders.
"I can see it happening. In just 15 years, bitcoin has gone from merely an idea posted anonymously on an internet message board to being the ninth most valuable asset anywhere in the world," he added.
Trump added at Bitcoin 2024 that if elected, he'll lay out a road map "to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world."
Meanwhile, big contributions from major donors are flooding into the Trump campaign.
The FEC filings released this week reflected donations from Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz of the venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz. The duo donated $2.5 million each to the pro-Trump super PAC "Right for America."
Elon Musk, one of Trump's most prominent backers, has contributed nearly $75 million from July to September to America PAC — a pro-Trump super PAC that Musk established, according to a document filed with the FEC.
To be sure, Trump isn't the only candidate who has won the support of cryptocurrency investors.
Vice President Kamala Harris' billionaire backer, Mark Cuban, praised her position on cryptocurrencies.
"She understands the connection crypto has to young people," Cuban wrote in an X post on October 14.
"She understands it's a valuable technology that needs to grow here," he added.
When approached for comment, a Trump campaign spokesman referred Business Insider to the president's statements on crypto during "media interviews, speeches, and social media posts from the last 20 months."