Author: 0xjs, Golden Finance
On June 21, 2024, Gemini co-founders Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss each donated $1 million in Bitcoin (15.47 BTC) to the Trump campaign and publicly stated that they would vote for Trump in the US election in November.
Tyler Winklevoss also published a long article denouncing the Biden administration's encryption policy and why he supports Trump.
Cameron Winklevoss and I just each donated $1 million in Bitcoin (15.47 BTC) to Donald Trump and will be voting for him in November.
Here are the reasons:
Over the past few years, the Biden Administration has openly declared war on cryptocurrency. It has weaponized multiple government agencies to bully, harass, and prosecute talented players in our industry in an effort to destroy it. This administration’s actions amount to an unprecedented abuse of power, entirely for twisted political gain, and entirely at the expense of innovation, American taxpayers, and the American economy. There is nothing the Biden Administration can do or say now to pretend otherwise.
Some dark spots of the Biden administration include:
Weaponizing the banking system against cryptocurrency companies and their leaders
This was colloquially known as “Operation Chokehold 2.0.” The OCC (the federal agency responsible for licensing and regulating national banks) and the FDIC (the federal agency that provides deposit insurance to banks) provided “guidance” behind the scenes and instructed banks not to provide banking services to cryptocurrency companies. Any bank that did not follow the orders was threatened.
The conversation goes something like this: “You have a great bank. It would be a shame if something happened to you guys because you banked some crypto companies.” If that tactic isn’t enough to scare a bank, then examiners are sent in to turn everything upside down. This will almost certainly lead to some “findings”—show me the bank and I’ll tell you its crimes—resulting in huge fines or new regulatory rules and conditions that cripple the bank’s ability to operate. The risks are simply too great. Banks can choose not to bank crypto companies, or they can let the banks make that choice for them.
These institutions have God Mode over banks, as they can revoke a bank’s charter or FDIC deposit insurance at any time for “safety and soundness.” That’s why they can act like characters from The Godfather and intimidate banks into giving up any customer or customer base they want. This bankification of a perfectly legal but ideologically unpopular industry began during the Obama administration, when President Joe Biden was Vice President. It was called “Operation Chokehold 1.0” at the time, and it is a well-documented stain on Obama’s presidency. The Biden administration has resurrected this strategy and is going full speed ahead against the cryptocurrency industry.
The crackdown has expanded beyond cryptocurrency companies to individuals working in the cryptocurrency industry. I personally have lost multiple bank accounts because I own cryptocurrency, my investment company Winklevoss Capital.
The SEC’s Weaponization of Cryptocurrency
The Biden administration’s SEC has yet to establish any rules for the crypto industry to help any participant understand how to navigate the regulatory environment for this new asset paradigm. This is by design.
By not creating any new rules for encryption, the SEC can disingenuously say that the existing rules — based on a 1946 Supreme Court ruling about a citrus grove in Florida, issued 50 years before most homes had telephones and before the advent of the commercial internet — are fit for purpose. But they are not.
Take this example. If ETH were a security (which was an open question 48 hours ago), then if you sent ETH from your smartphone to a friend’s smartphone, you would be violating securities laws. Why? Because only a broker-dealer is allowed to transfer securities. And it can only transfer the security to another broker-dealer. From this example alone, anyone can understand how classifying a cryptocurrency like ETH as a security would diminish its utility and undermine its ability to unlock a decentralized future. It’s like asking a car to behave like a horse. Yet, this is the position the Biden SEC is taking on nearly all cryptocurrencies. It’s not doing this because it doesn’t understand the consequences, it’s doing this because it does. And this is exactly the consequence it wants. To kill cryptocurrencies.
By taking the absurd position that virtually every cryptocurrency is a security, the Biden SEC has given itself legitimacy and carte blanche to bring lawsuits against any cryptocurrency project and company in the United States. The game is simple. Make compliance impossible, then sue everyone who doesn’t. That’s exactly what the Biden SEC has repeatedly done to the good people in the space. The SEC won’t write rules for crypto—which can be done in a few days—and years from now, judges and juries will write rules that the SEC acted in bad faith and was wrong all along. The time and financial waste will be enormous. The damage will be done. But that’s the point.
The Biden administration has tainted the missions of these agencies and undermined their integrity. They are all led by unelected bureaucrats appointed by President Biden to do his bidding. These officials’ ethics are political interests, and their higher mission is political power. Congress has never given them the legal authority to determine the fate of the crypto industry or any other legitimate industry in the United States, and they are completely unqualified to serve as gatekeepers to our country’s economic life. That’s what markets do.
However, crypto is not the only industry that is treated this way.
The Biden administration has been on an all-out assault on corporate America and demonizing its greatest heroes. The crime is always success, and the reward is always ridicule, fines, and even more red tape. But to be clear, the Biden administration doesn’t exactly hate success. They just hate success that’s not under their control. Once they figure out how to seize or coerce those assets, the Biden administration will be enthusiastic about success, gleefully manipulating or redistributing them in obvious ways to buy votes. Over a long enough time frame, it’s easy to see how these policies will lead to our economic and national ruin.
Capitalism elevates people. If allowed to develop properly, it is the greatest creator of wealth and prosperity the world has ever seen, and the only economic system that can achieve this peacefully while preserving the freedom and dignity of everyone involved. Under certain conditions — such as the fact that anyone can form a company, open a bank account to accept payments from customers, and operate in open markets without government interference — innovation and wealth creation will flourish without limit. Remove any one of those building blocks, and you get a completely different system with completely different outcomes. This is exactly what the Biden administration has done to the cryptocurrency industry and many other industries in the United States. It has been dismantling our economic way of life and the system that makes the United States the greatest country in the world. And it is doing this solely for its own power, control, and political ambitions.
Of all the experiments in capitalism, America is the greatest. I’ve witnessed and experienced this firsthand many times. Gemini, a crypto platform that Cameron and I founded in 2014, grew from an idea on a napkin to a company that has employed thousands of people and helped millions of customers acquire crypto over the past decade. I’ve had employees thank me in tears because their work at Gemini allowed them to buy a house for their family. I’ve had customers approach me on the street and thank me for founding Gemini because it helped them achieve financial freedom and start their own businesses. It’s experiences like these that give me the greatest joy and give meaning to everything we do at Gemini.
The Biden administration is trying to destroy all of that. I will not stand by and let them do it. I will continue to fight for what I believe is right. President Donald Trump is the pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, pro-business choice. That is not even worth debating. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either grossly misled, delusional, or not telling the truth. It is time to take back our country. It is time for the crypto army to send a message to Washington. Attacking us is political suicide.
That's why I will be voting for President Trump in November, and I hope you will do the same. Go ahead!
