Former United States President Donald Trump, currently facing criminal charges in four jurisdictions, has announced that his 2024 presidential campaign will accept cryptocurrency donations. In a May 21 notice, the Trump 2024 campaign launched a fundraising page allowing eligible individuals to donate using the Coinbase Commerce product. The website featured logos for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), XRP, USD Coin (USDC), Solana (SOL), and 0x (ZRX).
The announcement came amid Senator Elizabeth Warren’s criticisms of cryptocurrency, which Trump’s campaign claimed, without evidence, were part of her role as President Joe Biden’s “official surrogate” in Congress. At a May 8 dinner for supporters who purchased a nonfungible token featuring his mugshot from a Georgia jail surrender, Trump promised attendees they could donate to his campaign in crypto.
With less than six months until Election Day, Trump is the presumptive Republican Party nominee for the 2024 presidential race. He will likely face off against President Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee. Trump has agreed to meet Biden for televised debates on CNN and ABC on June 27 and September 10, respectively, marking their first face-off since the 2020 election.
Despite the move to accept crypto donations, Trump’s campaign website did not mention digital assets or blockchain on its issues page. President Biden has rarely spoken publicly about crypto but signed an executive order to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets in 2022.
Trump’s announcement came as the jury in his New York criminal trial prepared for deliberations. The former president is required to appear in person in a Manhattan courtroom for allegedly falsifying business documents related to a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He also faces charges in Georgia and the District of Columbia for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election results and in Florida for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
In 2021, Trump described Bitcoin as a “scam” and expressed a preference for the U.S. dollar as the “currency of the world.” However, his digital asset policies have been a focal point in the current campaign, with rivals Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis issuing statements on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Trump stated in January 2024 that he would never allow the creation of a CBDC in the United States.
The acceptance of crypto donations coincides with political action committees (PACs) supporting Trump reportedly covering some of his legal bills. In February, a judge ordered $355 million in disgorgement against Trump and his companies for fraud. In January, a New York judge ordered Trump to pay more than $83 million related to a defamation lawsuit brought by author E. Jean Carroll. In May 2023, a jury also found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation against Carroll, ordering $5 million in damages.
