Kennedy Jr- the next Bitcoin President?

The office of President of the United States has been termed by many as ‘the most powerful job in the world’- and indeed, it is one that confers enormous power to the one that holds it.

The President, as the head of the executive branch, is empowered not only to appoint and manage the many enforcement bodies that are part of the executive branch, but also to create policy and bring it to debate in Congress, and to either approve or deny bills that have passed Congress.

It should come as no surprise, therefore, that competition for this position is fierce- candidates begin campaigning years before the election, and begin the process of making alliances, fleshing out policy details, and making clear a candidate’s stance on certain issues.

And in recent months, comments from one particular presidential candidate has attracted significant attention from cryptocurrency enthusiasts- Robert F Kennedy Junior (RFK jr).

The rise of Robert F Kennedy Junior

RFK jr has made no secret of his support for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. In an interview with the New York Post, RFK jr promised to push policies that protected and supported Americans who wanted to use Bitcoin.

In addition, he has also promised to ensure that “we have policies that support Bitcoin and the freedom to transact and that allow individuals to manage their own Bitcoin wallets, nodes, and passwords.

And just this week, he swore in a tweet that he would make sure that the right to use and hold Bitcoin is inviolable. He also praised Bitcoin as a ‘bulwark against totalitarianism and the manipulation of our money supply’, and argued that Bitcoin ‘points the way toward a future in which government institutions are more transparent and more democratic.

Evidently, Bitcoin has got quite the fan running for president- and as a candidate from the same party as the vocal anti-crypto candidate Elizabeth Warren, it is surprising.

So why does RFK jr believe in such a radically different policy from Warren?

Let’s first contextualise RFK jr’s political sentiments, and take a wider look at his stance on related issues.

First of all, RFK jr has described himself as an opponent of the Federal Reserve, the US’ central bank. He argues that the Fed has ‘collaborated with numerous banking institutions between 2008-2002 to print a colossal amount of money’, which would cause further monetary imbalance in the future.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, was praised by RFK jr as ‘something no human being can change’, because the fate of the cryptocurrency is in the hands of its miners.

In the same vein, he is also a vocal opponent of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), viewing them as tools of control and oppression that are likely to be abused by governments.

Certainly, there is some truth to this view.

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the government bailed out big banks, and some executives continued to pay themselves huge bonuses while the middle class lost their homes, jobs, and livelihoods.

And during the pandemic, quantitative easing was instituted on such a massive scale that around 80 per cent of all the US Dollars in circulation were created only in the past few years.

Thus, a democrat like Kennedy, running on a pro-crypto platform actually makes some sense. The Democratic party has always been the champion of the middle class, and often runs on platforms that claim to represent the interests of the middle class against big corporations and big companies.

How much does Kennedy’s stance align with what we expect from a Democrat?

But there is something distinctly different about Kennedy’s rhetoric and the means with which he hopes to protect the middle class.

While other Democrats like Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are considering expanding the reach of the government in order to regulate crypto companies, Kennedy’s proposal is to protect individual investors by guaranteeing their rights, by limiting the power of the government.

Limiting the power of the central government is not often seen as something that Democrats push for- it is quite often Republicans who do so.

And speaking of ‘protecting democracy’ and ‘freedom to mine’ seems awfully out of character for a democrat as well. Such rhetoric usually comes from Republicans, who emphasise the rights of individuals and embrace unfettered capitalism, and quite often criticise any effort to try and control the economy.

Yet, here we are, with RFK jr, a presidential hopeful who combines goals often associated with the Democratic Party, with means often associated with the Republicans.

Given how much Kennedy seems to be deviating from what has become expected from Democrats, how much support he will receive from Democratically-aligned voters may be in question.

However, there is also a chance that pro-crypto swing voters may choose to vote for Kennedy. And this is not likely to be a fringe group- an estimated 46 million people in the US hold cryptocurrencies, making them around 13 per cent of the total population.

The issue of crypto, and political attitudes towards crypto ownership and crypto legislation, may prove to be a sticking point for many Americans in the coming years- and it might make or break a candidate’s chances at office.