Donald Trump announces his campaign will accept cryptocurrency

Former United States President Donald Trump, currently facing criminal charges in four jurisdictions, has announced that his 2024 presidential campaign will accept cryptocurrency donations.

On May 21, the Trump 2024 campaign revealed a fundraising page allowing eligible supporters to donate using Coinbase Commerce. The platform supports Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu, USD Coin, Solana, and 0x (ZRX). The campaign's announcement criticized Senator Elizabeth Warren's stance on cryptocurrency, accusing her of acting as President Joe Biden’s “official surrogate” in Congress without evidence.

During a May 8 dinner for supporters who purchased a nonfungible token featuring his mugshot from a Georgia jail surrender, Trump assured attendees they could contribute to his campaign in crypto. With less than six months until Election Day, Trump stands as the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 U.S. presidential race, likely to face President Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

On May 15, Trump accepted President Biden's challenge for televised debates on June 27 and September 10, to be hosted on CNN and ABC, respectively. Though the terms are still being finalized, these debates would mark their first in-person confrontation since the 2020 election.

Despite accepting crypto donations, Trump’s campaign website did not highlight digital assets or blockchain issues at the time of publication. President Biden, though rarely vocal on crypto, signed an executive order in 2022 to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets.

Trump's crypto donation announcement coincides with the jury in his New York criminal trial preparing for deliberations next week. The former president must appear in a Manhattan courtroom for allegedly falsifying business records regarding a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Additionally, he faces charges in Georgia and the District of Columbia for purportedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election results and in Florida for allegedly mishandling classified documents.

In 2021, Trump dismissed Bitcoin as a "scam" and advocated for the U.S. dollar as the “currency of the world.” Despite this, as the presumptive Republican candidate, his stance on digital assets has come under scrutiny, especially as rivals Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis have vocalized their positions on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Trump declared in a January 2024 campaign event that he would oppose the creation of a CBDC in the United States.

Political action committees (PACs) supporting Trump have reportedly covered some of his legal expenses. In February, a judge ordered $355 million in disgorgement against Trump and his companies for fraud. In January, a New York judge mandated Trump to pay over $83 million in a defamation lawsuit by author E. Jean Carroll. In May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation against Carroll, awarding her $5 million in damages.