ByDan Alexander,
Forbes Staff.
D
onald Trump, the crypto skeptic-turned-“chief crypto advocate,” became one of the world’s biggest bitcoin investors this summer, when his Trump Media and Technology Group purchased $2 billion of the cryptocurrency. On stage at a bitcoin conference in Las Vegas, one day after news of the plan became public, first son Donald Trump Jr. couldn’t help but gloat. “I think you saw, all, the announcement yesterday,” he said, his voice rising like a politician anticipating applause. “We’re very long crypto. I mean, it’s a huge part of everything that we do right now.”
The price of bitcoin had just jumped 57% in a year, and Don Jr. predicted it would increase about 35% to 60% more in the year to come. Next to him on stage, his brother Eric foresaw a 55% jump. A half year later, those calls look like signs of an overheated market. From the time Trump Media purchased its pile of bitcoin in July, the cryptocurrency is down an estimated 12%. The president, in turns out, got in at the top, or pretty close to it.
