Trump vs. Harris: Who Would Be Better for Crypto?

This is like if Berlusconi married Benito Mussolini and they had a baby, it would be Donald Trump. He's the most transactional son of a bitch that you'll ever meet. Today he's for crypto. Tomorrow he may or may not be for crypto. You said to me, first quarter of next year, if Trump wins, could we have a Solana etf? I would say yes.

I know that you are a staunch critic of Donald Trump, but if you had to look from the perspective of the crypto industry, which one is the best candidate for crypto, Trump or Harris?

Well, I think the industry thinks it's Trump. So no matter what I say, the industry consensus is that they've decided that Donald Trump is best for the industry. But I think that they're overlooking a lot of things that they should be careful of. The first thing is it's very clear that Donald Trump wants to change the system in America. He wants to weaken the judiciary and weaken the legislature and strengthen the executive branch of the country, which would lead to what I would call an oligarchic situation. You know, him and his team of billionaires getting together to decide things, which would weaken our capital markets and it would weaken our standing in the world. You may get some positive cryptocurrency policies, but you may see a world in great disorder. Whatever you say about the Biden administration, economy has been strong generally during the administration. Crypto markets have been strong, and the Biden administration while against crypto. And I don't like that stance, and I'm working alongside a group of many people to try to soften that stance. But the Biden administration respects the rule of law. They lost the court cases. Bitcoin entered the realm of getting an official etf, and I predicted there'll be lots of progress made in cryptocurrency regulation if Vice President Harris gets elected. This guy is Gabadost, okay? This guy is a lunatic, and he can't be trusted with the nuclear codes. He's the most transactional son of a bitch that you'll ever meet. Today he's for crypto. Tomorrow he may or may not be for crypto. I think bitcoin will do well under a Harris administration, and I think the world will do better. And that's why I'm voting for her, and that's why I'm supporting her.

Yeah, Because I think that a lot of people in the crypto industry now are not very much convinced that the Democrats would make a U turn, as Trump did on crypto. The Fed on the, if I'm not mistaken, on the 9th of August, crack down on one of the few left crypto friendly banks in the United States, Tyler Winklevoss came out. He said that this crypto reset that the Democrats are trying to show is actually a scam and that it's the sign that the Harris presidency would continue these policies against crypto. What is your argument against Tyler Winklevoss points?

Well, he may be right, so I don't want to argue against him. He's certainly right in this case and I like Tyler a lot. I consider him a personal friend. I would say that it's frustrating for me, but I'm not a single issue voter and I'm worried about the broader impact. I think crypto has done well despite the belligerence of the Biden administration. I do push and I do promote positive regulatory reform and an end to things like operation choke 2.0. And I would say to Tyler and people listening to this, you're right. And so if you want to vote for Donald Trump, I understand it, I'm not going to refute it. I certainly won't vote for him because I know him, I know how dangerous he is. And I'm going to work towards making crypto, the concepts around it and the regulation bipartisan because I think that the industry will be better served if both parties capitulate and allow this to be bipartisan. That's my opinion and I'm going to stick to it.

Just want to get your understanding of one of the biggest promises that were made by Donald Trump, which I think made a lot of people excited, which is creating a reserve in the US Made of bitcoin that probably would have potentially a massive impact on the price of bitcoin. Do you believe in this promise, do you think? Would it be beneficial in somehow for bitcoin and for the United States?

Oh yeah. I mean, obviously the answer to that question is yes. I mean, you know, I think the again, once again will applaud President Trump that he had very smart people, the David Bailey's of the world, et cetera, advising him in the speech that he gave at the bitcoin conference, which I listened to, was quite good. And if he creates a strategic asset reserve that includes bitcoin and it's put on the balance sheet of the United States, I think it's a very good thing. Imagine a country owning 1, 2 or 3 million tokens and those tokens being worth several hundred thousand dollars. Imagine how smart of an idea that is.

Do you think that the crypto voters can swing this election.

Maybe. See, what's interesting is that the Democrats don't think so. They think that this is a fringe idea. It's a fringe concept. They think the industry is loaded with fraudsters and they need to crack down on the industry and potentially push the industry off the shore of the United States. And they don't think it's gonna have any impact. If anything, they think them hating on crypto is helping them. And if they lose the election, if Vice President Harris loses the election, when they do the autopsy, one of the things they'll say, well, she lost the election because she was on the wrong side of the cryptocurrency industry and she underestimated the number of people that own cryptocurrency. We think there's at least 50 million people in the United States that own it, and many of them might be single issue voters. So I'll just submit this to you guys to think about. Let's say I'm wrong. Let's say there's not 50 million, let's say there's only 25 million people that own crypto in the United States, but let's say 5% of them are single issue voters. So that's 1,250,000 people that are single issue voters. If they're in the swing states of the United States, she will lose the election. So it's absolutely asinine that they have a negative crypto strategy. And I'm trying to fix it. I've worked alongside of a group of people who are supporters of hers to see if we can get them to listen to us, see if she can modulate what, what she's doing. But it's anybody's guess, Giovanni, whether or not she's willing to do that, I don't know.

A lot of people now are expecting the crypto market to skyrocket. They see the US Election as a bullish catalyst for bitcoin and crypto, whatever the results will be. So we didn't see like a massive rally after the bitcoin halving as it usually happens. It happened before the halving this time. And so people are always looking for the next bullish catalyst. And that's why now they project it on the, on the US elections. But what do you think?

Well, let's step back. I think this is important. I mean, the, the first time in, since the inception of bitcoin you got to the high water marker, the all time high before the having. You also had the introduction of these ETFs before. The halving, when you had the halving and the 900 tokens per day got cut down to 450 tokens per day. It put a lot of selling pressure, Bitcoin from the miners. You also had the Mt. Gox bankruptcy, which was approximately $9 billion of Bitcoin get distributed over the last three weeks. So given everything that I just said, plus the 50,000 coins that were sold by the government of Germany during this period of time, that churn of bitcoin, plus the pressure from the miners, the fact that it's trading at $60,000 I think is a very, very good sign. So we could be sitting here three months from now, Bitcoin at 100,000 people say, well, how the hell did that happen? Well, let me tell you how it happened. The selling pressure from Al Gox is over. US government, German government, selling pressure over. And the Wall street selling machine has been out there net plus positive on these ETFs in terms of the amass, the amassing of capital. So yes, I mean we're in a period of time where it hasn't moved.

Super.

Well, the election may be the catalyst, it may not be, but I think a stronger catalyst is just a lack of sellers after the Mt. Gox government sales I think is going to be the real catalyst to push us higher.

I wanted to get your feeling about other crypto projects you feel excited about right now.

Listen, I mean I'm talking my book a little because I own these, but I own Solana, I own Ethereum, I own Algorand, I have a big position in Avalanche, which I have a huge respect for that team. I also own Algorand, I have a small position in something called Vulcan Forge, which is a gaming token. But my big positions are really Bitcoin and Solana.

What do you think is going to be the next ETF approved? Do you think that there is a chance that Solana will be next? Or perhaps we need to wait a longer time before that happens.

So the problem is that the SEC has said that Solana is a security. And so the way these ETFs work in the US you can't put a single security into an ETF. You could put a multiple of securities, you could put a portfolio of them in an etf. But if you're saying that Ethereum is not a security and therefore you can have an Ethereum etf. And the question is, why would Solana be a security if Ethereum is not a security? So this is the stuff that drives the industry crazy. This is the hypocrisy of the current regulators. And so after the election, I'm sure these regulators that suck will get cleared out of the SEC and more pro industry regulators will be put in. And so there would likely be a Solana, et cetera etf. But if Harris wins, she keeps the same regulators. I think they're going to find ways to slow that down. So I still think there will be one. I just don't know when. It would probably take longer. If you said to me, first quarter of next year, if Trump wins, could we have a Solana etf? I would say yes. If he loses, could you still have a Solana ETF by the end of 2025? I say yes, because they'll win the court cases. These guys have truly been terrible as regulators. They're bringing enforcement actions that are unfair. They're trying to regulate through enforcement, and they're losing the court cases.

Okay, Anthony, So I think that was good. I really hope we're gonna talk again after the elections, maybe in half a year from now, and see what the aftermath will be for crypto.

This is like a Berlusconi married Benito Mussolini and they had a baby. It would be Donald Trump. You know, it's not. He's not Berlusconi. He's worse than Berlusconi. Don't forget that.

Okay, thanks a lot, Anthony.

All right.

Sam.