Donald Trump Makes First Payment Using Bitcoin
On September 19, former US President Donald Trump made a historic Bitcoin transaction to buy a hamburger at PubKey Bar, New York, marking the first time a former US president has publicly used cryptocurrency.
After his second assassination attempt, former US President Donald Trump has attracted the attention of the crypto community when he made a historic transaction using Bitcoin to buy a hamburger at PubKey, a popular crypto-themed bar in New York City. This is not only the first time a former US president has publicly traded using Bitcoin, but also clearly demonstrates Trump's strong support for cryptocurrency.
Pubkey's X account shared:
"One of the most iconic transactions in Bitcoin history just took place. President Donald Trump bought a burger at Pubkey at block: 861871"
Donald Trump received assistance from PubKey staff to scan the QR code to pay with Bitcoin on his phone. There was a brief moment of concern about whether the transaction was successful, but then someone in the bar confirmed: "The transaction was successful!"
Trump then spoke to the cheers of the crowd at the bar, encouraging crypto voters to vote in the upcoming November election. Trump shared:
"This is a really great place and I just completed my first Bitcoin transaction. Crypto enthusiasts go out and vote because if you do, we cannot lose. The SEC has treated you very badly and we are going to change that."
The former President personally handed out burgers to customers in the bar, excitedly calling them "crypto burgers", making the atmosphere at the bar more lively and exciting than ever.
A series of memecoins were created right after the event, notably Crypto Burger, with a capitalization that quickly reached $4.5 million, skyrocketing 141,000% in just a few hours after its launch.
However, the PolitiFi memecoins related to Trump did not have much change, only increasing slightly after the news of Trump buying burgers with Bitcoin spread.
This move seems to be Trump's attempt to regain support from the crypto community, especially when he "fell off the horse" in the first debate with Vice President Harris, causing the value of memecoins about Trump to plummet.
Trump recently officially launched a DeFi project called World Liberty Financial, run by his family members, to affirm his commitment to the cryptocurrency sector. However, the press conference launching World Liberty Financial did not mention detailed information about the project, instead it was more like an interview and call for the election of Donald Trump.
Although he had previously called Bitcoin a "fraud", Donald Trump changed his stance and publicly supported crypto during his 2024 US presidential campaign. He also pledged his vision of making the United States "the crypto capital of the world" and affirmed his support for Bitcoin miners if elected in November.
Trump said that the release of the NFT collection changed his attitude towards cryptocurrencies and gave him a different view of the potential of blockchain.
Trump has so far released four NFT collections on Ethereum and Bitcoin, which quickly "sold out" after being launched and helped him earn millions of dollars.
