Is Bitcoin a Republican issue? Why Nashville's crypto conference has a partisan edge

As the Bitcoin2024 conference kicked off in Nashville’s Music City Center Thursday, attendees agreed: Cryptocurrency is political.

With current Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump headlining the event Saturday , the rest of the schedule is decked out with GOP politicians, independents like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a few Democratic congressmen.

From Tennessee, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Sen. Bill Hagerty are scheduled to speak. Also leading the agenda are famous government-surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden, former Republican U.S. presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and celebrity Russell Brand, along with hundreds of tech-industry speakers.

What's drawn legislators and crypto-industry insiders together in Nashville?

“Politicians follow votes,” BitcoinIRA cofounder Chris Kline said. “These are the same reasons they make stops in battleground states like Wisconsin, Ohio and even Nevada and Arizona. Bitcoin is no longer a niche interest group.”

There are also going to be several high-profile fundraising events .

David Bailey, CEO of conference organizer Nashville-based BTC Media — the parent company of Bitcoin Magazine — announced Tuesday that the conference was “in talks” with Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign to schedule her as a speaker. The next day, he said she declined the invitation and that “it would have been a disaster for her” anyway.

He then criticized Harris's political record and wrote on X: "Major democrat donor told me Kamala says privately 'Bitcoin is money for criminals.'"

Some crypto professionals said they view Bitcoin as inherently apolitical, but that’s changing as calls for consistency in crypto regulation grow louder with more support coming from Republicans.

Earlier this year, Trump pivoted on his critical Bitcoin views to embrace digital currencies. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden vetoed legislation that crypto leaders said would have improved their abilities to work with traditional banks.

Nationwide, eyes are turning to Nashville’s Bitcoin conference to see what progress will be made, if any politicians commit to a federal Bitcoin strategic reserve and if any surprise tech billionaires pop into town.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, Tesla, and Memphis-based xAI is rumored to take the stage at the conference.

Legislation is also expected to be discussed to bolster the profile of cryptocurrency.

A possible federal Bitcoin strategic reserve

Reports swirled throughout the crypto community over the last week that a federal Bitcoin strategic reserve could soon become a possibility in the U.S.

This would result in the federal government buying up an unspecified number of Bitcoin units and holding onto them — in the same way that the country maintains the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

“A Bitcoin strategic reserve would mean that the U.S. is signaling to the rest of the world that we’re going to make a diligent effort to hold Bitcoin as part of the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, but also possibly even look into putting more mining efforts here in the U.S.,” Kline said.

Mining is the process that creates new Bitcoins and verifies transactions.

Educational Bitcoin nonprofit CEO Dennis Porter said the reserve proposal could come from Trump , and Fox Business reported Wednesday that Wyoming’s Sen. Cynthia Lummis plans to announce legislation to create a Bitcoin reserve this week.

Lummis plans to speak in Nashville on Friday. Her office did not respond to The Tennessean’s request for comment on Thursday.

Support from Elon Musk

Bailey, head of the company hosting the Bitcoin conference, has alluded to a surprise guest who may speak in Nashville this weekend.

Bailey’s posts on X about making “more programming space” and “apologizing in advance for breaking the internet” sparked conjecture that tech billionaire Elon Musk could be in attendance. NFT news platform SolanaFloor also reported that Musk’s private plane landed in Memphis earlier this week.

Musk has been a strong supporter of cryptocurrencies, and following the attempted assassination of Trump earlier this month, he officially endorsed Trump for the 2024 election.

How Bitcoin aligns with the GOP

The Bitcoin2024 lineup — a who's who of Republican and libertarian celebrities, influencers and politicians — has a distinct partisan edge.

Several conference attendees said Republicans offer more favorable regulatory terms.

“Bitcoin itself is a way of decoupling money in the state, and so that might align more with the Republican or conservative side in terms of fundamental values of taking that power away from the government and the ability to choose a new form of money,” Quai Network cofounder Alan Orwick said. “That's kind of where the lines are being drawn.”

Others pointed to an “unfriendly” environment with the Securities Exchange Commission that they’ve noticed in the last four years.

“We haven't seen what VP Harris's stance is yet, but we're assuming it's the same as the Biden administration, which has been very hostile, especially in regards to the SEC Chairman Gary Gensler,” CastleFunds President Peter Eberle said. “Unfortunately, some of the innovative companies have decided to set up shop overseas, where the regulatory framework is more friendly.”

Eberle said he believes a Republican administration would foster more affable guidelines for crypto.

Hadley Hitson covers trending business, dining and health care for The Tennessean. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com . To support her work, subscribe to The Tennessean .

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Is Bitcoin a Republican issue? Why Nashville's crypto conference has a partisan edge