Miami Mayor to Accept Bitcoin Donations for Presidential Campaign

Miami (Florida, USA) mayor Francis Suarez told CoinDesk TV in an interview that his presidential campaign is accepting donations in Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency.

Supporters of the candidate can donate to him at least 0.00034 BTC, or the equivalent of $1.

\”The biggest mistake this administration [the presidency] has made is that they do not understand the crypto industry, so they have moved to a coercive regulatory mechanism instead of establishing basic rules,\” Suarez said.

In his view, the United States should establish a taxonomy of digital products, guiding principles and rules for this class of assets.

Suarez is convinced that cryptocurrencies will provide ‘democratizing opportunities to create wealth’ and will exclude ‘manipulations based on hidden motives and political objectives’.

He also promised to ban CBDC in case he is elected president of the United States.

\”No one wants the federal government to know how much money you have and where you store it. I don’t think there’s anything particularly innovative about that,\” he added.

In November 2021, Suarez spoke about plans to convert his salary into Bitcoin. In December 2022, he said that he still receives payments in the leading cryptocurrency, despite the bear market.

In June 2023, Suarez announced his candidacy for the U.S. presidential election, scheduled for November 5, 2024. His Republican primary opponents will be former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

The best-known Bitcoin advocate in the current presidential race is Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. He previously called digital gold an alternative to the traditional financial system, and also criticized American regulators for the ‘war on cryptocurrencies,’ which led to a bank crisis in the country.

If elected, the politician promised to take decisions that ‘will support Bitcoin and the freedom to transact, enabling people to manage their wallets, nodes and passwords’.

In June, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong called the upcoming US elections a key moment for regulating digital assets.

According to a Grayscale report, the push for cryptocurrencies by presidential candidates is driven by the forecast that Generation Z and millennials will make up a significant portion of voters — about 44%. Young people trust traditional institutions less and are more inclined toward new technologies.