Tennessee’s Nashville – The Music City Center is located a block from Lower Broadway’s neon-lit bustle, where honky-tonks spill onto the city’s main street at all hours. This facility has played home to events ranging from craft beer conferences to a concert by the renowned Dolly Parton.
The facility filled up for something very different in late July. The largest bitcoin convention of the year featured none other than the late President Donald Trump as the main attraction.
In front of a crowded conference room full of attendees who had spent hours navigating the rigorous security procedures of the Secret Service, the Republican presidential nominee touted the benefits of bitcoin and outlined the implications of a second Trump administration for the cryptocurrency sector for almost fifty minutes on a Saturday afternoon in the epicenter of country music.
Trump said, addressing the bitcoin miners who operate massive banks of powerful computers to safeguard the network, “If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA.” “We’re going to produce so much electricity that you’ll be pleading with the president to stop giving us electricity. We’re sick of it!
The former president’s remarks, which seemed to come directly out of a bitcoin enthusiast’s bible, represented a radical shift for someone who had called cryptocurrencies a “scam” three years prior. Undoubtedly, Trump was drawn to the prospect of receiving enormous sums of money from a sector of the economy that is constantly targeted by the Biden-Harris administration and heavily regulated by SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
Trump claimed to the Nashville crowd that he had raised $25 million in cryptocurrency-related funds; however, CNBC has not been able to independently corroborate this amount.
It required the hard effort of a tiny army of bitcoiners and other crypto enthusiasts who were able to get into the candidate’s inner circle to turn Trump from a skeptic into an overnight bitcoin evangelist. Specifically, a group of three friends from Puerto Rico banded together to attempt persuading the Republican presidential candidate of bitcoin’s worth, and ultimately to clearly state as much to a significant Nashville audience.
To use the language of bitcoin, Trump was “orange-pilled.” It’s a parody of the line “red pill” from the 1999 motion picture “The Matrix.” Neo, portrayed by Keanu Reeves as the film’s protagonist, is offered the option to swallow a blue pill, which denotes a fictitious but far more reassuring version of reality, or a red pill, which provides access to the disturbing truth about the world.
The orange pill, which is the official hue of bitcoin, symbolizes a person’s commitment to using bitcoin instead of fiat money.
The three Puerto Ricans, David Bailey, the CEO of media company BTC Inc. and organizer of the conference in Nashville, Tracy Hoyos-López, a former California prosecutor, and Amanda Fabiano, the shadow chief of bitcoin miners, were among the network of confidantes, friends, family, and coworkers who were all committed to orange-pilling Trump.
Bailey pledged earlier this year to provide Trump $100 million and five million votes. An update on fundraising figures is reportedly on the way for CNBC.
The three started formulating a plan over the Memorial Day weekend at a steakhouse in the Guaynabo neighborhood of San Juan called Bottles, as they enjoyed family-style food.
Here’s how Fabiano described the first conversation to CNBC.
David said, “Hey, I’ve been talking to the administration, and I want to do a roundtable on mining. Can we chat this weekend?” when we were out to dinner with a group of folks. Fabiano stated.
Bailey has been exchanging bitcoin briefings and communications with the Trump campaign for months. He was eager to provide information about a potentially profitable fundraiser and a mining working group that included some of the best CEOs in the sector. He was preparing to travel the 1,600 miles to meet the former president at Trump Tower in Manhattan. It would set the stage for Nashville’s next chapter.
Bailey’s neighbor Hoyos-López was eager to assist Trump in reaching Nashville as she had just suffered an orange peel. She just so happened to know someone who was ready to introduce her to people in the Trump circle. Meanwhile, the group’s street cred was further enhanced by Fabiano’s background in bitcoin mining.
Hoyos-López stated, “Without Amanda, we wouldn’t have had the legitimacy to sell that this is a legitimate business.” She is the queen of mining. She possesses every miner.
A lot of miners are former Wall Street executives, according to Hoyos-López.
She added, “You have to take serious people if you want to be taken seriously.” And miners are the most serious example of it.
Numerous questions concerning Trump’s most recent cryptocurrency fundraising figures, his evolving opinions on bitcoin, and the circumstances leading up to his Nashville trip were unanswered by the Trump campaign.
“Whom should we assign to the room?”
Miners using powerful computers located all over the world produce new tokens and validate transactions in tandem to generate Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Spreading out data centers all over the world are a visible representation of their huge physical presence, providing a concrete image for novices to grasp an otherwise abstract technology.
“When thinking about how to explain bitcoin to Trump in a way that makes sense,” Fabiano said it was a perfect match.
Bitcoin’s energy use is often criticized, even though it is not much more than Egypt’s yearly electricity consumption. However, because mining uses so much energy, the sector is creating creative ways to produce and distribute it.
When there is high demand, miners and utilities can work together to bring electricity back into the system. Additionally, by harnessing underutilized renewable energy sources that are frequently concentrated in isolated regions of the nation, they are fostering economic growth in otherwise inert places. All of that might result in increased energy production in the United States, which is crucial to meet the demands of the artificial intelligence boom.
Bailey said that he traveled to New York for a meeting with Trump, but he did not elaborate on the content of the exchange. What is evident is that shortly afterward, Trump consented to have a 90-minute roundtable with about a dozen CEOs and specialists in the cryptocurrency space in a tiny tea room at his Palm Beach, Florida Mar-a-Lago Club.
Two weeks after the dinner at Bottles, that meeting was held in mid-June.
Bailey, Fabiano, and Hoyos-López realized they would need the appropriate crowd to persuade Trump of the benefits of mining and to persuade him that the event would be worthwhile of his time if they were to get him on board with the big bash in Nashville.
“We were wondering who we should put in the room. Well, who would be the most qualified to explain this? Who would be prepared to stake money, essentially putting their neck on the line? And that’s how everything got its start,” Fabiano stated.
Several in attendance stated that those who pledged to attend each gave a fundraising committee a $500,000 donation.
According to Fabiano, who had never run for office or participated in politics before, the main worry among potential attendees is seeming biased. She mentioned that there was “a prep call for agenda items” before to the meeting.
In order to demonstrate to the Trump team that “We are real people, and we are real businesses, and you should take us seriously,” Fabiano prepared a PowerPoint that included background information on the miners who would be attending the Mar-a-Lago roundtable.
Guests at Mar-a-Lago, including officials from Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital Holdings, TeraWulf, and Core Scientific, sacrificed their iPhones to a radio-frequency identification pouch that blocked outgoing and incoming communications while thunderstorms pounded the Atlantic coast. They heard the former president discuss the intricacies of China’s rivalry, bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence, and America’s energy deficit from beneath a large chandelier.
“That roundtable really gave me the impression that this is a real industry because they were there with money, smart things to say, and agenda items that mattered to the United States of America,” Fabiano remarked.
Fabiano expressed her gratitude to Trump for “digging in and learning about why this industry is real” and “why we’re not a bunch of criminals” following years of political criticism.
With Trump, Fabiano and company realized they wouldn’t be starting from zero.
In March, Bailey began consulting with the Trump team. Trump debuted his most recent nonfungible token offering on the Solana blockchain in April. He was the first significant presidential candidate to take donations in cryptocurrencies in May. He had begun discussing the defense of “self-custody of coins” while on the campaign trail and had promised to keep Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and “her goons” away from bitcoin holders at the Libertarian National Convention in May.
Techies, cryptocurrency executives, and venture capitalists paid up to $300,000 a ticket to attend a Trump fundraiser in San Francisco at the beginning of June. The event raised over $12 million in total. Trump leaned more and more on his newly acquired support the more he raised.
Bailey stated, “There are a lot of bitcoin enthusiasts in Trump’s inner circle.” Some members of his family are avid supporters of bitcoin. Real estate has been sold by Donald Trump for bitcoin. I just paid him with bitcoin for a pair of shoes.
Bailey said it’s relatable to see Trump go from cynic to enthusiast. He said that MicroStrategy’s millionaire creator, Michael Saylor, had formerly been a skeptic and had spent the previous twelve years on a personal journey.
Regarding Trump, Bailey stated, “There isn’t necessarily a single person who’s responsible for orange-pilling him.” “I think it’s really quite natural that he would have a 180 on this issue.”
Bailey stated that he believes the reason the former president is drawn to bitcoin is because it “represents a transformational opportunity for the country,” based on months of conversations with Trump and his advisors.
He remarked, “It’s kind of a match made in heaven in that sense.”
Reaching “yes”
Between the June meeting in Mar-a-Lago and the late-May conference in Nashville, according to Hoyos-López, the group was “agonizingly” waiting for a response.
The initial “yes” from the Trump team was for the Manhattan meeting, and Hoyos-López received the news over the phone while Bailey was in Japan. Over a month has passed since the conference. Hoyos-López said she hopped in her car and headed to Bailey’s residence to get ready the one suit he had in his closet with his wife, Emily.
Hoyos-López stated, “We couldn’t find any dry cleaners that would have this in time in Puerto Rico.” We had to come up with some really inventive solutions, including steaming, sun-baking, and drying his outfit.
In a short period of time, there was a lot of work to be done.
Trump accepted Nashville shortly after the Mar-a-Lago roundtable.
As a criminal defense lawyer and former prosecutor, Hoyos-López remarked, “I’m used to dealing with very big and very emotional moments, but not treating them as such.” “Alright, well, we need to sit down and figure out,” I think as everyone else is having a great time and celebrating.
Bailey’s greatest hope three months prior was to get Trump to Nashville. In Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth with crypto-friendly rules that offer significant tax incentives to individuals who spend at least 183 days there year, he frequently discussed it with his core circle of pals.
“We never in a million years thought we would be here,” stated Hoyos-López. “Securing a presidential candidate’s attendance at the Bitcoin Conference ranks among the most exciting things I’ve done and probably will do in my lifetime.”
Hoyos-López, Fabiano, and Bailey attempted to set up a second roundtable with Trump during the conference. They invited a larger group of industry players, such as Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, and the Winklevoss twins. Along with a few politicians, Kid Rock, Billy Ray Cyrus, and a few prominent mining executives were also there.
During his speech, Trump wore a navy blue suit with a blue and white striped tie and an American flag pinned to the lapel. He stated he would dismiss SEC Chair Gensler and that a Trump White House would “keep 100% of all the bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds or acquires into the future.”
The stakes are extremely high for Fabiano, Bailey, and Hoyos-López since Democratic contender Kamala Harris is leading in the polls.
“If Trump doesn’t win, our industry as a whole will disappear,” stated Hoyos-López. “I just don’t believe anything that they say, but there are some rumors that Harris is trying to appear more friendly and change her position on cryptocurrency in general.”
As “single-issue voters,” Hoyos-López claimed that her current priorities are mobilizing the bitcoin community and obtaining votes.
She responded, “Yes, the money that you get in is very important.” “But ultimately, votes are what really count.”
Bailey, Hoyos-López, and Fabiano reunited near their house less than a week after departing Nashville to discuss the events that had transpired. They had a variety of Puerto Rican tapas together, including a particular favorite of mine, a goat cheese quesadilla with honey and almonds on top. They first met in a restaurant named Santaella.
“We just sat down and said things like, ‘Holy crap.'” “We accomplished this,” stated Hoyos-Lopez. “This community is literally about us—we created the table and we brought everyone to the table.”
