Stephen K. Bannon, former chief strategist to President Trump, said in an interview that he had good intentions with Bitcoin and was interested in creating other virtual currencies.
The one who, just almost year after working as an official in the post of chief strategist in the White House, today describes cryptocurrencies as “disruptive populism” and is now betting, in his own words, that “Bitcoin and other cryptos can interrupt banking activity in the way Mr. Trump interrupted American politics“.
Bannon fears that other crypt-enthusiasts will think of him as a spy who has come to watch what is happening, since his name itself is controversial because of past relations with the federal government, which could bring a negative bias to the industry that is just taking off.
Together with its business partners, it has created its investment business, Bannon & Company. From where he has been attending private meetings with investors in cryptocurrencies and hedge funds. He has also been seen participating in calls for initial coin offers. He claims to have had a “good stake in Bitcoin”.
Disruptive Populism
The unusual world of cryptos has aroused the interest of all kinds of people in recent years, from drug dealers and swindlers to the largest companies in Silicon Valley to the most serious institutions on Wall Street; Bannon’s fascination with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is accompanied by the return of control from the central authorities, which he sees as revolutionary.
At an important meeting, Bannon, together with academics from Harvard University, put forward a proposal to create a new virtual coin, the “deplorables coin”. A jocular play on words that comes from the description that campaign rival Hillary Clinton once gave of her party as “a basket of deplorables”.
The possibility of a return to politics has not yet emerged in these days. What was his abrupt break with the White House over the critical comments he made in Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury” about other conservative colleagues and the president’s son, businessman Donald Trump Jr., accelerated his step toward his exit from politics at least for now.
The former strategist says he is taking advantage of these moments where he sees a potential political component in what virtual currency are.
“It’s pretty obvious to me that unless you had some kind of control over your currency, all these political movements are going to be in debt to whoever controls the currency in future,” Mr. Bannon said.
