Elon Musk did not talk about crypto with Trump

Recently, two news items have emerged that have led to speculation that Elon Musk might have something to do with Donald Trump regarding crypto. 

This hypothesis, suggested by Bloomberg, has also been picked up on X by a collaborator of X and Elon Musk. 

Trump’s proposal to Elon Musk: no crypto for now

Everything started a few days ago when the Wall Street Journal reported a meeting between former President Donald Trump, currently a candidate again, and Elon Musk regarding a possible advisory role for the latter in a potential new Trump administration.

Musk, who in the last elections had sided with Biden (and therefore against Trump), this time instead sided with Trump, expressing disappointment with Biden’s policies. 

Since X is a very important social platform in the USA, regarding political matters, having Musk on your side can help, especially during the election campaign. 

And so, in this way, Musk not only gave his public endorsement to Trump, without openly expressing himself on the matter, but he even said he was willing to lend a hand to the potential Trump government even if it were to actually come into being. 

In the past, the ex-president had been banned on Twitter for using the social platform to incite the assault on Congress in 2021, but a few years later the new owner reinstated him. 

Although during the Republican party primaries Musk initially supported a rival of Trump, Ron DeSantis, and despite in the presidential elections he seemed to support the third candidate, Robert Kennedy Jr., in the end he is supporting Trump. 

The potential crypto issue

Recently Donald Trump has expressed particular support for the development of the crypto sector in the USA.

On the one hand, this can be considered in all respects a turning point, given that in 2019 he had instead promised to ban Bitcoin if it reached a value of more than $100,000, it is not a recent turning point.

In fact, after having problems following the electoral defeat of 2020, the former president first launched his own collection of NFT on the market as a form of financing, and over the years he has amassed a crypto nest egg worth about 10 million dollars.

Elon Musk for his part has been a supporter for years not only of Bitcoin, but also and especially of Dogecoin. “His” Tesla still owns as many as 9,700 BTC.

At this point, it seemed inevitable that during their meeting they would also talk about crypto. 

On the other hand, the issue that specifically concerns crypto regulation in the USA is not only still open, but has become part of the political debate during the ongoing election campaign. 

Even Biden himself was forced to backtrack on this matter, as the anti-crypto stance of “his” Democratic party was becoming increasingly anachronistic and damaging in terms of consensus. 

It is not a coincidence that the SEC, which has been at the forefront against cryptocurrencies for years, was forced to change its mind a couple of weeks ago and approve the requests for the issuance of spot Ethereum ETFs on US exchanges at the first attempt. 

The denial

Despite all this, Elon Musk explicitly denied having discussed crypto with Musk. 

Il mercato azionario è spesso influenzato da due tipi di investitori: bull e bear. I bull sono ottimisti e credono che i prezzi delle azioni saliranno, mentre i bear sono pessimisti e pensano che i prezzi scenderanno.

He wrote on his official X profile that he has never discussed cryptocurrencies with Trump, but he also added that in general he is in favor of things that shift power from the government to the people, such as cryptocurrencies.

To tell the truth, however, given his behavior in recent years, with first the support for DeSantis, then the apparent support for Kennedy, and in the meantime the opening to Trump, it suggests the idea that his public statements are no longer to be considered 100% reliable. 

So on one side there is Bloomberg reporting unconfirmed rumors that they also discussed crypto, and on the other side there is the official denial of these rumors. It is difficult to say with certainty who is right, but to be honest, neither of these two sources in this case seems really reliable. 

It remains, however, the fact that Musk has not been involved in cryptocurrencies for some time now, and that Trump’s interest is certainly a purely electoral interest, both in terms of consensus and fundraising. 

These are still and only statements, both from Trump and Musk, and none of them can be considered 100% correct. 

It should be noted, however, that any future role of Musk within the Trump administration will certainly have to do mainly with other things, and not with cryptocurrencies, also because to date in the crypto field Musk has practically no significant role. 

The two key issues should be the automobile market, given that Tesla is a significant American player in this sector, and the aerospace market, given that SpaceX is now a cornerstone of NASA’s strategy for routine operations.