Bitcoin veteran Max Keiser has accused U.S. President Donald Trump of “frontrunning Americans” after one of his companies acquired a massive $2 billion worth of BTC on Monday.
Keiser, long known for his bombastic takes and early Bitcoin evangelism, labeled Trump’s move “The Great Bifurcation,” implying the president was making sure to fill his own pockets before the U.S. reserve fund acquires any BTC.
The $2B Bet and the “Front-Running” Allegation
On July 21, Trump Media, the operator of the Truth Social app, confirmed spending $2 billion to purchase BTC and Bitcoin-related securities as part of a previously announced Bitcoin treasury strategy.
It did not go unnoticed that the acquisition came soon after the president signed a landmark crypto legislation, the GENIUS Act, which will regulate the stablecoin sector in the United States.
Earlier in the year, Trump also issued an executive order laying the groundwork for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to be stocked with BTC forfeited to the government as part of criminal or civil proceedings. In addition, he asked the Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce to find “budget-neutral” ways for acquiring additional Bitcoin, including open-market purchases.
There has been no public reporting on the matter since, with most of the momentum seen at the state level as several of them introduced legislation to introduce their own crypto reserves.
Corporations have also been on a buying spree. Michael Saylor’s Strategy leads the pack, with its latest 6,220 BTC buy taking its stash to 607,770.
However, Trump Media’s foray into the market drew fire from Keiser, who also advises El Salvador president Nayib Bukele on the Central American country’s BTC plan. The former media personality reacted to the news of the $2 billion purchase, saying:
“Before buying any for the reserve fund, DT is front running Americans and buying Bitcoin for himself.”
Keiser’s accusation suggests Trump is using his position to personally benefit from a potential future surge in BTC’s price when the official U.S. national Strategic Bitcoin Reserve starts acquiring the asset.
Community Reaction
Reactions from the rest of the community were polarized; users like pseudonymous analyst Bitcoin Munger also implied impropriety on the president’s part, saying: “First the family loads up, then the country.”
Others defended the billionaire politician, with some suggesting he was only “leading by example” and showing confidence in the crypto asset before sinking billions of taxpayer dollars into it.
The furor notwithstanding, BTC has kept on motoring just fine. At the time of this writing, it was trading at around $119,313, slightly over 3% shy of its recent all-time high of $123,091, per CoinMarketCap.
Over the past month, it has surged 16.2%, with a 9.5% gain in the past two weeks. However, a modest 1.7% uptick in the last seven days means it has underperformed the global crypto market, which is up 5.90% in that period.