How Softer Crypto Regulations Under Trump Could Impact Bitcoin
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Access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees, but I don't really need it. Inflation is killing me. But who cares? Big retailers are making record profits. That's why we support the Durbin Marshall credit card bill. See? Banks and credit unions help small businesses make payroll. This bill would cut the vital resources they need. While increasing megastore profits. They deserve it, don't they? Tell Congress, stop the Durbin Marshall money grab for corporate megastores. Paid for by the Electronic Payments Coalition.
Here's your Money Briefing for Tuesday, November 19th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. Bitcoin has been a big winner among investments this month. It's now worth about $1.8 trillion, ranking between Google parent Alphabet and Facebook owner Meta.
People are very excited about what they're calling the first crypto president. Donald Trump gave a big speech over the summer to a cryptocurrency conference where he came out strongly in favor of cryptocurrencies. He said that he would reduce regulation, so he wants to have regulations made that by people who like Bitcoin rather than the current administration, which has been very anti-cryptocurrencies.
We'll talk to Wall Street Journal columnist James McIntosh after the break.
Access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees that I don't really need it. The inflation is killing me. But who cares? Big retailers are making record profits. That's why we support the Durbin Marshall credit card bill. See? Banks and credit unions help small businesses make payroll. This bill would cut the vital resources they need. While increasing megastore profits. They deserve it, don't they? Tell Congress, stop the Durbin Marshall money grab for corporate megastores. Paid for by the Electronic Payments Coalition.
Bitcoin buyers have pushed the price of the cryptocurrency to a series of new records in just the past two weeks. Wall Street Journal columnist James McIntosh joins me. James, help us with the basics for a moment. What is Bitcoin?
So Bitcoin's a cryptocurrency, which means it uses some very interesting and clever maths to secure an online currency, which you can in principle use to transfer between people without the involvement of a government.
It's called a virtual currency. How does that differ from the paper currency we have in our wallets?
So almost all of the dollar is in fact a virtual currency as well.
How did Bitcoin's market value change after Election Day?
Really, the distinction here is between being government backed. So the dollar is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, which means in principle, the government can dig into your pockets as taxpayers to back the dollar. Bitcoin isn't backed by any government or indeed by anything. It relies for its value on the fact that other people want it. How do people invest in it? Nowadays, you can buy it pretty much anywhere you buy stocks. So most of the retail brokers will sell Bitcoin as well. Plus there are ETFs and there are various companies that have built big stocks of it. So their share prices tend to move quite closely with it as well.
Can it be used as a form of currency?
What did Donald Trump say about cryptocurrencies at the conference?
Yes. The whole point of it when it was originally designed was to allow it to be used as a currency so that retailers on the internet could sell stuff in the same way as they sell stuff for a $20 bill. Unfortunately, it's not very good at it. So it's expensive and slow compared with using dollars.
What are some other pitfalls of investing in Bitcoin?
Well, it's incredibly volatile. So it's been subject to these enormous swings in prices. Obviously, when that's up, that's a good thing for people who own it. When it's down, that's a very bad thing for people who own it. Why has the price jumped to record levels just since Election Day? So people are very excited about what they're calling the first crypto president. Donald Trump gave a big speech over the summer to a cryptocurrency conference where he came out strongly in favour of cryptocurrencies. There's two big things. The first is he said that he would reduce regulation.
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