Former president and one-time bitcoin detractor Donald Trump will speak at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee, this weekend alongside other political figures, looking to further his rebrand as a “crypto president” ahead of Election Day.

Characterized as the world’s largest bitcoin conference, the three-day event hosted at the Music City Center convention complex features a wide range of speakers such as independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., political commentator and comedian Russell Brand and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

The conference features educational panels, networking opportunities and entertainment experiences such as a Karate Combat/Influencer Fight Club viewing and a screening of a bitcoin movie, “God Bless Bitcoin,” which features interviews with people such as billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.

Trump will give a 30-minute keynote address Saturday during the conference’s final day, in a speech that will likely attempt to court voters and capitalize on support he has already received from key cryptocurrency figures like the Winklevoss twins.

Kennedy, who owns between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of bitcoin, will speak Friday afternoon, as the presidential candidate has championed cryptocurrency as a way for the middle class to insulate itself from inflation.

Tickets to the conference are pricey, starting at $699 and reaching as high as $21,000 for a single ticket—though prospective attendees can get tickets at a 21% discount if they purchase them with bitcoin.

Edward Snowden, the whistleblower behind one of the largest classified documents leaks in the history of the National Security Agency, is expected to speak Friday from Russia, and has called the cryptocurrency “the most significant monetary advance since the creation of coinage.”

Bitcoin traded down more than 2% at just under $65,000 Thursday afternoon, having mostly plateaued in the last three months, posting gains of a fraction of a percent. It has surged more than 53% since the start of the year.

$1.8 million. That is how many dollars worth of bitcoin Trump supporters donated to the Republican nominee through the end of June, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Key Background

The bitcoin conference has historically been used by public figures and companies as an event to announce partnerships and initiatives. 

In 2021, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, announced at the event that the country would be making bitcoin a legal tender. Attendance has been inconsistent in recent years, as 25,000 people appeared at the convention in 2022 (when the crypto market experienced one of its worst crashes ever) and 12,000 attended in 2023, according to Bloomberg. 

Bitcoin 2024 has yet to share attendance numbers, though big-name speakers like Trump could generate more tickets than prior years.

What Has Donald Trump Said About Bitcoin?

Trump has increasingly warmed up to cryptocurrency as Election Day draws closer, ditching the skepticism he had for it years ago.

While president in 2019 he said he was not a fan of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, calling their values “highly volatile and based on thin air” in a tweet. He also told Fox News in 2021 bitcoin “just seems like a scam," saying he did not like it “because it's another currency competing against the dollar." 

Since then, Trump has embraced cryptocurrency, allowing supporters to donate to his campaign with bitcoin and selecting a running mate in JD Vance, R-Ohio, who supports and owns at least $100,000 worth of bitcoin.

The cryptocurrency market may benefit from Trump winning in November, with bitcoin remaining “sensitive” to the election as its price is “positively correlated with the probability” of a Trump victory, according to Bernstein analysts led by Gautam Chhugani.

Trump’s Democratic challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris, is likely to adopt the regulation-centric crypto policies of her former running mate, President Joe Biden.

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