Trump’s First Week – Is Bitcoin Winning?

As expected, Trump’s first week as president has been noteworthy to say the least. In his usual no-nonsense style, the 47^th president was hot out of the gates making sweeping reforms, declaring national emergencies, and setting out a clear agenda for how he intends to put America first.

And in a surprising turn of events, the new President and First Lady even found time to launch brand-new meme coins just days before the inauguration.

Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. You simply couldn’t make it up….

Trump’s re-election symbolises what feels like a seismic cultural shift in America. Collectivism is on its way out, and the socialist dogma that has eroded the wealth and freedoms of US citizens is being dismantled. Trump’s inauguration speech made clear that the pendulum will now be swinging back hard in the opposite direction.

Some of the more notable statements from his speech included:

• Declaring a national emergency at the United States’ southern border, expelling illegal immigrants, and cracking down on foreign gangs.
• Stopping the unfair politicisation and weaponisation of the US Department of Justice.
• Addressing inflation by reducing Government overspending.
• Declaring a ‘National Energy Emergency’. The United States will now “drill baby drill” to bring down energy prices and revive manufacturing.
• Taxing citizens less by placing higher tariffs on imports instead.
• The introduction of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce government waste and overreach.
• The cessation of Government censorship and the restoration of free speech in America.
• Building the world’s strongest military not just to win wars, but to end them and avoid them entirely.

And in what can only be described as a very clear projection of power and intent, Trump has also renamed the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to the ‘Gulf of America’ and declared that the US will be taking back ownership of the Panama Canal!

In just one week as President, Trump has signed countless executive orders and even declared that US astronauts will be the first to land on Mars. The level of ambition in this new administration is high, and action is being taken swiftly. We’re only a week into Trump’s presidency, and there’s already way too much to try and unpack!

Thankfully, we run a Bitcoin newsletter, not a political one. So this week we intend to stay in our lane and focus on what a Trump presidency might mean specifically for Bitcoiners like you.

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Presidential MemeCoins

A lot of noise has been made about Trump being the first ‘Bitcoin President’. But we seem to be off to a bit of a shaky start. Launching meme coins on Solana just days before the inauguration won’t sit right with a lot of Bitcoiners, and for good reason.

Alt coins are simply affinity scams trying to extract money from the gullible and ill-informed by swimming in the wake of Bitcoin’s true innovation. To put it simply, altcoins are at best nothing more than a reckless way to gamble, and at worst, outright scams.

You could argue that meme coinsare slightly less pernicious than alt coins; at least they aren’t pretending to be something they’re not. People implicitly understand that they don’t really do anything or have any real value. Besides it’s a free market, right?

That’s a reasonable enough point of view, but does it really set a good precedent? A president endorsing memecoins so overtly is likely to lead to an explosion of scams and worthless crypto projects. It will further muddy the waters around what Bitcoin truly represents, and lead people away from the sound money they so badly need to liberate themselves.

In hindsight, this move might end up being considered a misstep for President Trump.

The President’s early foray into memecoins sits in stark juxtaposition to what was a clear, compelling and statesman-like inauguration speech. It’s hard to believe the same man who delivered such an inspiring speech would also be busy launching meme coins. The motivations behind this move remain unclear, but it seems likely that it could be due to receiving poor advice from shady operators within the wider ‘crypto industry’.

Regardless of what this memecoin madness all about, it’s not worth getting worked up over. As long as you recognise the clear difference between Bitcoin and crypto, it’s easy enough to simply opt out of this particular circus and avoid the inevitable fallout.

Bitcoin doesn’t care, and ultimately, neither should you.

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A Strategic Bitcoin Reserve?

Another hot topic surrounding this new administration is the speculation as to whether President Trump will form a strategic Bitcoin reserve for the US. Understandably this creates a lot of excitement amongst Bitcoiners because if the richest nation on earth starts buying Bitcoin, then any sats they’ve been stacking will no doubt rocket in value.

But the extent to which this is likely or not is debatable. It might make sense to temper your excitement a little bit. Trump did not make any promises to buy Bitcoin during his presidential campaign, he only went as far as to say he would not sell the US Government’s existing stockpile. There are certainly proposals being presented to start a strategic Bitcoin reserve, most notably by Senator Lummis, but the President himself has so far not committed to actively buying Bitcoin on behalf of the US Government.

The likelihood of President Trump suddenly announcing that the US will aggressively start buying Bitcoin is perhaps lower than a lot of Bitcoiners would like to believe. To enact such a policy would instantly weaken confidence in the US dollar and would be a direct affront to US Federal Reserve. It’s probably wishful thinking to expect the US Government to go head-to-head with the central bank so directly and so soon.

Instead, what we have seen so far is an Executive Order outlining how this administration plans to ‘Strengthen American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology’.

This Executive Order (EO), although very closely aligned to Bitcoin, never mentions it directly. Nonetheless, there are definitely reasons to be positive about its contents. It outlines that citizens should be allowed to use public blockchain networks without persecution, develop and deploy software, participate in mining, and transact with others without censorship. And it also clearly states that businesses and private citizens alike will have the right to maintain self-custody of their assets. All of which should be music to any Bitcoiners’ ear!

Afterall, it’s nice of them to give us permission (even if we weren’t asking for it).

The rest of the EO however is perhaps a little less exciting. There is mention of a ‘digital asset stockpile’, but this sounds very different from a ‘Strategic Bitcoin Reserve’. This stockpile is also likely to be derived from cryptocurrencies seized via law enforcement activity, rather than via actively buying Bitcoin.

The EO also mentions the prohibition of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) which is certainly positive. But simultaneously it talks about protecting the sovereignty of the US dollar by promoting the development of dollar-backed stablecoins. Surely a centralised and programmable stablecoin has just as much risk of being used as a weapon of control as a CBDC does.

Are the two functionally really that different?

Ultimately this Executive Order, while positive, seems unlikely to mean the US government is going to be ‘smash buying’ Bitcoin next week. Especially given the working group being assembled doesn’t have to submit a report on of the above for another 180 days. So, despite all of the excitement on Bitcoin twitter it probably makes sense to maintain a cool head.

For the time being at least Trump is most likely to acquire digital assets not on behalf of the US government, but via his own Defi platform World Liberty Financial.  His team there have been busy buying wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), a Bitcoin derivative on the Ethereum network, along with a plethora of other shitcoins that we would suggest you steer well clear of.

It’s a reserve of some sort, but it’s definitely doesn’t have any Bitcoin in it.

Some Bitcoiners might be disappointed if the US doesn’t announce that it will be buying Bitcoin hand over fist in the next few weeks. But it makes little sense to be upset. Remember that the main purpose of Bitcoin has always been to separate money and state and restore the balance of power to private citizens.

It doesn’t matter if your government builds a strategic Bitcoin reserve, you should be focussed on building your own. Which will be a whole lot easier if you’re not competing with a nation state with access to an infinite money printer.

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A Pro Bitcoin Presidency?

Despite some dubious shitcoinery at the outset of his presidency, there are a lot of promising signs that suggest Trump’s administration is likely to be a lot less hostile toward Bitcoiners than previous governments.

Like many of you, we’re extremely pleased to have seen President Trump honour his campaign promise and pardon Ross Ulbricht. It’s very encouraging to finally see Ross released. Ross was facing life behind bars for creating the first Bitcoin powered and truly libertarian online marketplace, the Silk Road. Signing his release suggests the Trump administration has a very real commitment to personal freedoms and innovation.

Not to mention, it’s immensely refreshing to see a politician keep their promises.

Developments like this leave us hopeful that President Trump will also honour other commitments he made to Bitcoiners during his presidential campaign. Most of which were announced during the Bitcoin conference in Nashville last year.

Let’s remind ourselves of some of the statements and commitments that Trump made during that speech:

There’s a lot for Bitcoiners to be hopeful about here, most notably the commitment to defend the right to self-custody and allowing you to truly own your wealth. It certainly sits in stark contrast to the outgoing administration’s constant attacks on self-custody and what they referred to as ‘non-custodial wallets’.

It’s also exciting to see Trump’s support of Bitcoin mining. Combined with his new energy strategy, Bitcoin mining could be used to completely revolutionise and reinvigorate the energy sector in the US. There’s a reasonable chance that this could lead to an explosion in hash rate resulting in an even more secure Bitcoin network.

So far then, things look promising. Trump has kept his word and pardoned Ross Ulbricht, and for the time being we have no reason to believe he won’t honour the other commitments he made to Bitcoiners in Nashville as well.

It seems reasonable to be cautiously optimistic.

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Inaugurate Yourself – Start Your Own Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

It’s certainly interesting to think about how a Trump presidency might make life a little easier for Bitcoiners. If our property rights, rights to privacy, and free speech are better protected, this can only be a good thing.

But at the same time we should remember that Bitcoin was created so that you no longer need to seek permission. Bitcoin grants you the ability to take full ownership of your wealth and transact with whomever you please regardless of what any government or politician might say. It’s apowerful tool that, if used correctly, takes power from the state and puts it directly in your hands.

If you want to enjoy the freedom that Bitcoin promises, then your best strategy is to avoid the noise and focus your attention on building your own strategic Bitcoin reserve. Your time will be better spent learning how to secure and use Bitcoin properly than it will worrying about what your government might do with it. Politics is a distraction; you can only secure your freedom by directly pursuing it.

If you’re ready to take full control of your wealth and your future, then we can teach you the skills you need to do it. Take matters into your own hands and book a free 30-minute consultation with one of our experts today to get started.