Author: David Pan, Bloomberg; Translated by: Wuzhu, Golden Finance

Donald Trump told attendees at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night that he loves and understands cryptocurrencies, adding that bitcoin miners help stabilize energy supplies to the power grid, said Matthew Schultz, executive chairman of crypto mining company CleanSpark Inc. Schultz added that Trump said he would advocate for miners in the White House.

In recent weeks, the former president has increasingly highlighted Bitcoin and other digital assets on the campaign trail as a way to attract new voters. He has taken advice from Elon Musk and pledged at the recent Libertarian Party convention to commute the sentence of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. His campaign is also now accepting cryptocurrency donations.

Jason Les, CEO and director of Riot Platforms Inc., also met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, according to a post on X.

The meeting comes at a time when crypto miners are facing a backlash over a range of issues, including climate change and its impact on local power grids.

Democrats have been leading the charge to increase scrutiny of bitcoin miners’ energy consumption and carbon emissions, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has been a high-profile supporter of the industry.

Meanwhile, the crypto industry is working to support candidates seen as supporting digital assets, including through increasing donations to the Fairshake political action committee.

The United States has become a hub for Bitcoin mining since 2021. This energy-intensive process involves using power-hungry computers to verify encrypted transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain and receive rewards in the form of tokens.