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Make Bitcoin great again - what Donald Trump's backing of crypto could mean for the industry
On July 27, the former US president and Republican nominee for the upcoming election, Donald Trump, headlined the biggest Bitcoin conference of the year in Nashville. In his speech, Trump claimed he will make the US the "crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world" if returned to the White House after November's election.
Bitcoin Price Tanks Hours After Trump Floats Using it as US Reserve Asset
Bitcoin prices plummeted after former President Donald Trump suggested that the cryptocurrency could be used to pay off the country's $35 trillion national debt.
Bitcoin dropped 12 percent in the past 24 hours and ether plunged by 21 percent in the same time period. The price of bitcoin has been dropping since Friday, and briefly dropped to below $50,000 on Monday. This was the first time it had dropped below these levels since February.
In recent weeks Trump has been attempting to position himself firmly as pro-crypto. Speaking at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee on July 27, the Republican presidential candidate unveiled his plans to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet" if he is elected for a second term.
He also spoke about the U.S. creating a "strategic national bitcoin reserve."
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 07, @12:02PM (3 children)
There are five countries at the bottom of that list that owe zero dollars. Every other country owes money.
Debt doesn't work like that. If you owe 20 trillion dollars, then that money is owed to somebody. How can every country in the world (except five zeros) have a negative balance? Who is that money owed to, Lizard people from Zeta Reticuli?
(Score: 5, Informative) by aim on Wednesday August 07, @12:51PM (2 children)
That list should be taken with a huge mountain of salt.
External debt here means "public and private debt owed to nonresidents repayable in internationally accepted currencies" (cf Wikipedia). Luxembourg for instance is listed as #6, but the country sure doesn't owe that kind of money, having a public debt of about 25% of GDP, which is healthy enough to warrant an AAA rating - no, it's actually mostly money placed in funds there. For the exact same reason, I don't believe for a second that Liechtenstein, of all places, would be ranked with a 0 there - there's lots of money placed in Liechtenstein, too.
Public debt also isn't owed only to other countries, but to the private sector - resident or foreign.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Thursday August 08, @07:27AM (1 child)
[...] is healthy enough to warrant an AAA rating [...]
It's not about economic health. The debt itself has become the currency. The result is that those AAA ratings have nothing to do with solvency or fiscal responsibility but is only the recognition that the countries in question toe the line on various (sometime self-defeating) social and economic policies.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday August 08, @06:38PM
The ability to tax their subjects to pay the interest on the debt is the currency.
You can see why they get worked up about things like permanent demographic-driven long-term economic decline, because that means taxes will have to drop in parallel, which means currencies will have to drop in parallel... oh wait they don't like that last part at all.