GOP presidential candidate and current mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, has said he would be willing to accept Bitcoin (BTC) as part of his salary if elected president.
Suarez made the statement in a podcast interview, where he confirmed that he was already taking part of his mayoral salary in Bitcoin and would continue if elected president.
Presidential Salary in Bitcoin
He added that he felt it was important to support cryptocurrency in general and Bitcoin in particular because he sees them as a way to ensure that freedom will always be there.
Suarez described Bitcoin and other forms of crypto as a “good hedge and a good check and balance on a monetary system that’s gotten completely out of hand and become very political.”
The Miami mayor also talked about the benefits of blockchain and fractionalized investments. He said that tokenization makes debt and stock investments easier for more people to get into. By engaging directly in fractionalized assets, people may be able to close the wealth gap and make more money with less risk.
Bitcoin and Presidents
Crypto has become a hot topic among US presidential candidates, with the likes of incumbent Joe Biden and his fiercest competitor, former president Donald Trump, respectively, saying they have no fundamental value and that they are “a disaster waiting to happen.”
I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2019
However, Suarez said earlier this month that he would accept Bitcoin as a campaign donation, putting him in line with other presidential candidates who have also accepted cryptocurrencies, including Robert Kennedy Jr., Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy tweeted in the middle of May, “Bitcoin should not be regulated as a security.” He also said at the Bitcoin 2023 conference that he would take Bitcoin payments for his campaign.
Similarly, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has an outside chance of being the Democratic candidate for president, has also shown support for crypto.
Cryptocurrencies, led by bitcoin, along with other crypto technologies are a major innovation engine. It is a mistake for the U.S. government to hobble the industry and drive innovation elsewhere. Biden’s proposed 30% tax on cryptocurrency mining is a bad idea. 🧵
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 3, 2023
On his part, Florida Governor Ron Desantis, who many see as Trump’s closest competitor for the Republican ticket, has been very vocal in his support for Bitcoin. He kicked off his campaign on Twitter (now known as X) by stating Americans had “every right to do Bitcoin.”
Desantis also called out lawmakers and regulators, accusing them of not addressing crypto laws and making it difficult for Americans to own and use them.
But despite DeSantis’ public stance on Bitcoin, Mayor Suarez claimed that all he’d heard his opponent say is that he’s against Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).
He added that DeSantis needed to do more than just oppose CBDCs. “You can’t just say that central bank digital currencies are bad,” he said. “No one disagrees with that. That’s an easy place to be.”
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