It’s true that President Donald Trump and Steve Bannon are no longer thick as thieves following the former White House Chief Strategist’s less-than-illustrious exit from the administration. However, Bannon remains a staunch supporter of the Trump agenda, with one glaring exception: The architect of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign is a brazen bitcoin bull.
Steve Bannon Says He Bought Bitcoin ‘All The Way Down’
Speaking with CNBC, Bannon boasted that he had the “foresight” and “courage” to buy bitcoin as its price collapsed in 2018, falling from a high just under $20,000 to a low near $3,100.
“I would like to say I had enough foresight and enough courage to buy as it went all the way down,” he said when asked if – to borrow a phrase from Urban Dictionary – he BTFD.
“I think cryptocurrencies have a big future,” says Steve Bannon. “I think they could be a very important part going forward particularly in this global populist revolt.” pic.twitter.com/lYce7qzrIY
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) August 2, 2019
Today, the bitcoin price stands at $10,560, richly rewarding Bannon and other crypto investors who survived “crypto winter.”
Steven Bannon’s bullish bet led Joe Kernen – himself a budding Crypto Twitter darling – to give the onetime Breitbart executive chairman a new nickname: “Bitcoin Bannon.”
Crypto & the ‘Global Populist Revolt’
But Steve Bannon says his interest in cryptocurrency is more than speculative. Echoing remarks he has made in the past, he said that crypto technology would be a “very important part” of his true passion project: the “global populist revolt.”
“I think cryptocurrencies have a big future, I really do. I think they can be a very important part going forward, particularly in this global populist revolt,” he said.
Previously, Bannon called the advent of bitcoin “disruptive populism” and said that cryptocurrency is a “revolutionary” technology because it “takes control back from central authorities.”
Which authorities? Central banks like the US Federal Reserve, whose monetary policies have been causing President Trump so much consternation for the past year.
Bannon even toyed with launching his own “utility token…for the populist movement,” though it does not appear those plans ever got very far.
Trump & Bannon Diverge in Bitcoin Commentary
President Trump, in contrast, said he is “not a fan” of bitcoin, and cabinet officials have railed against the cryptocurrency’s perceived association with criminal activity.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin even warned that it could become a national security risk – and a threat to the global financial system – if it morphs into the digital equivalent of a Swiss bank account.