Donald Trump‘s election victory has poured rocket fuel on the tech and crypto-focused ‘Bro-conomy’ – and British bros are among those hoping to cash in.
Bitcoin has been the most obvious beneficiary of the ‘Trump pump’, with the world’s most popular digital at an all-time high after surging nearly 30 per cent since election day last Tuesday to hit $88,600 (£66,100) today.
Crypto experts across the pond have taken note, with one London-based research firm saying it is ‘quite possible’ Bitcoin could reach $100,000 (£78,000) by the president elect’s inauguration in January.
‘Bro in Chief’ and prominent Trump supporter Elon Musk has also benefitted handsomely from Mr Trump’s victory, and shares in Tesla up more than 40 per cent since election day – pushing his net worth up an estimated $54billion (£42bn).
Tesla was the most popular stock purchase last week on Hargreaves Lansdown – the UK’s biggest platform for private investors – and it is one of the largest holdings for the country’s biggest investment trust, Scottish Mortgage.
The ‘Bro-conomy’ – including crypto and Elon Musk’s company Tesla – is one of the major beneficiaries of Donald Trump’s election victory
Appealing to the ‘Bro Vote’ was a central platform of Mr Trump’s re-election campaign and helped him pick up a larger portion of voters under 30 than any Republican presidential candidate since 2008.
With his teenage son, Barron, acting as his unofficial adviser, the 78-year-old sat down with podcasters known for having a large male audience, including Joe Rogan and videogame streamer Adin Ross.
He even went on to launch his own cryptocurrency business, World Liberty Financial, while his campaign flogged an ‘America First Collection’ of NFTs costing $99 each.
Mr Trump has not always been a fan of crypto and during his first presidential term described Bitcoin and other digital currencies as ‘highly volatile and based on thin air‘.
But egged on by true believers like Elon Musk, the Republican changed his tune on the campaign trail, attacking President Biden’s crackdown on crypto and promising a ‘strategic national Bitcoin stockpile’.
His new-found enthusiasm has been of immense benefit to tech bros around the world, including in the UK – even as financial experts warn crypto is immensely volatile and could crash at any time.
Nigel Green, the British head of investment firm deVere, has called Mr Trump’s crypto-friendly stance the ‘most significant tailwind we’ve seen for Bitcoin since its inception’.
‘Bro in Chief’ and prominent Trump supporter Mr Musk has also benefitted handsomely from his victory. They are seen together at a rally in Pennsylvania on October 5
His resounding win has provided momentum to other major digital currencies, including Ethereum – up 39 per cent since the election last week – and Dogecoin, a joke cryptocurrency promoted by Musk that is now 98 per cent higher.
Flows into cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have also picked up since Trump’s election win.
On Thursday, November 7, Bitcoin ETFs experienced their largest inflows on record, drawing a net $1.38bn (£1bn), according to Citigroup.
‘There have been significant inflows across the board,’ Citi analysts said in a note. ‘ETF inflows have been the dominant driver of Bitcoin returns, and we expect this to continue in the near-term.’
So strong was the uptick that the crypto sector is now estimated to be worth £2.2 trillion, more than the market cap of the entire FTSE 100 at just over £2 trillion.
Crypto enthusiasts are particularly excited about the president-elect’s pledge to sack Gary Gensler, the head of the US financial watchdog who has led a years-long crackdown on the industry.
The morning after the election, crypto boss Cameron Winklevoss tweeted: ‘gm [good morning] @GaryGensler – you’re fired!’.
JD Vance, Mr Trump’s vice president, has owned Bitcoin since 2021, his financial disclosures show, with the most recent in August putting his stockpile at between $250,000 and $500,000.
Eric Trump, one of the president-elect’s sons and executive vice president of his private conglomerate, The Trump Organization, is a keynote speaker at a Bitcoin conference in Abu Dhabi next month.
Mr Trump’s vow to make the US the ‘crypto capital of the planet’ will be made easier to fulfill if Republicans win control of Congress as expected – cementing their clean sweep of both houses.
Eric Trump is a keynote speaker at a Bitcoin conference in Abu Dhabi next month. He’s seen with his wife, Lara, at a rally in Madison Square Garden on October 27
‘Bitcoin’s Trump-pump is alive and well… with Republicans on the cusp of taking the house to confirm a red wave in Congress, it seems the crypto crowd are betting on digital-currency deregulation,’ said Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index.
The cryptocurrency industry spent more than $119m (£92.8m) backing pro-crypto congressional candidates, many of whom won their races.
In Ohio, one of the crypto industry’s biggest foes in Congress – Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown – was ousted, while pro-crypto candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties won in Michigan, West Virginia, Indiana, Alabama and North Carolina.
Crypto lobbyists’ biggest coup was persuading Mr Trump to give the keynote speech at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, where he vowed to fire Mr Gensler on ‘day one’ – winning cheers from delegate who consider him a hate figure for his pursuit of crypto firms for alleged violations of securities laws.
In a full-throated defence of the industry that would have warmed the hearts of crypto bros worldwide, he said: ‘If we don’t embrace crypto and Bitcoin technology, China will, other countries will, they’ll dominate, and we cannot let China dominate.
And promising a brighter future ahead, he told the crypto world to ‘never sell your Bitcoin’ – advice many appear to be taking on board.