- Tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen have endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy.
- Mark Cuban says Silicon Valley’s support for Trump could be a bet on higher Bitcoin prices.
- Tax cuts, tariffs and the uncertainty that comes with a Trump victory will drive prices, Cuban said.
Mark Cuban says he has “conflicting opinions” about why Silicon Valley tech giants decided to support former President Donald Trump.
“This is a Bitcoin game,” the “Shark Tank” star wrote in an X post on Wednesday.
Cuban explained that the outpouring of support was not because they saw Trump as a “much stronger supporter of crypto.”
“That’s great. But it doesn’t really affect crypto prices. It just makes it easier to operate a crypto business because of the inevitable and necessary changes at the SEC,” Cuban wrote.
“What will drive the price of BTC are lower taxes and tariffs, which if history is any indication (and it isn’t always), will be inflationary,” he continued.
Trump’s campaign consistently advocated tax cuts and tariffs on China and Europe, both of which were his signature economic policies when he was in office.
But that’s not all, Cuban says. The billionaire argues that the uncertainty often associated with Trump’s erratic approach to foreign policy could help push Bitcoin prices higher.
“Combine that with global uncertainty regarding the US’s geopolitical role, and its impact on the US Dollar as a reserve currency, and you couldn’t align the stars better for a BTC price acceleration,” he said in his post.
Cuban said these factors mean Bitcoin could become a global safe haven, with countries and people looking to buy the cryptocurrency to protect their savings.
Trump has become a bigger draw for tech billionaires this year, a stark contrast from his first presidential campaign in 2016, when venture capitalist Peter Thiel was one of Trump’s few Silicon Valley supporters.
The Republican nominee now has the backing of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and venture capitalists David Sacks, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
When asked for comment, Cuban told Business Insider that he didn’t think higher Bitcoin prices were the only factor driving Silicon Valley’s support for Trump.
“However, this can be the most profitable and simplest way,” he said. “It is much easier to vet an application than to develop a company in an uncertain environment.”
Cuban isn’t the only one who thinks a second Trump administration could hurt the US dollar’s position as the world’s leading reserve currency.
In February, the chairman of the US Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, Mark Sobel, said Trump’s tax cuts and tariffs would hurt the dollar’s dominance even though Trump has promised to maintain it.
“Policies and actions speak louder than slogans,” Sobel wrote in a paper earlier this year.
To be sure, Trump’s position on crypto has changed dramatically since his first administration. In 2019, Trump said he was not a fan of cryptocurrency because its value was “very volatile and uncertain.”
But the Republican presidential nominee appears to have revised his stance on crypto. In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek published Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. needs to embrace crypto to keep China from taking over.
“Now, if I were to put it aside, it would be taken over by another country, probably China – they’re pretty advanced in that area,” Trump said. “I don’t want to be responsible for letting another country take over this area.”
On Monday, Bitcoin prices surged to a two-week high, surpassing $62,000, after Trump survived an assassination attempt on Saturday.
Trump’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.
