Bitcoin miners at Donald Trumps closed-door event say he thinks bitcoin can help win AI arms race
Summary
He is now accepting digital currency donations and has pledged to defend the rights of those who choose to self-custody their coins, meaning that they dont rely on a centralized entity like Coinbase to hold their tokens and instead, do it themselves in personal crypto wallets, which are sometimes outside the reach of the Internal Revenue Service. Geoff Kendrick, who heads up digital assets research at Standard Chartered, recently wrote that he expects bitcoin to reach the $100,000 price threshold as the U.S. approaches the November presidential election and $150,000 by the end of the year if Trump wins. "We were very impressed by how in the weeds he was on some pretty dense topics when youre talking about artificial intelligence, data centers, energy buildout, and transmission," continued Browder, who added that it was the first time bitcoin miners have formally met with the former president to discuss the industry. CNBC spoke to half a dozen miners who were at the meeting, all of whom converged on the same conclusion; that Trump understood how bitcoin mining complements some of the bigger macro challenges that the U.S. has as a country, most notably the imminent need for the rapid buildout of energy production and transmission infrastructure amid the booming interest in generative AI technologies. She says that the former president seemed especially interested in hearing more about the substantial job creation that the mining industry generates in remote parts of the country in sectors ranging from technology to construction, as well as the financial incentive it provides for the buildout of infrastructure to harness the power of stranded renewable energy sources.