Former Trump Aide Sets Eyes on Cryptocurrency
Someone who used to work for the world’s most powerful leader is seeking to break into the world of cryptocurrency, according to a New York Times report.
Stephen Bannon, a former chief strategist to US President Donald Trump, said he held private meetings with investors and hedge funds to stage initial coin offerings (ICOs) through his investment company, Bannon & Company.
“Mr. Bannon won’t reveal very much about his cryptocurrency plans — he worries that the controversy that comes with his name could have a bad impact on projects just getting off the ground,” the report said.
Bannon, Breitbart News’ former executive chairman, told New York Times he had a “good stake” in bitcoin. However, he described cryptocurrencies as “disruptive populism… “It takes control back from central authorities. It’s revolutionary.”
The ex-Trump aide shared he has been interested in digital currencies as early as 2016 when he discovered it through Brock Pierce, a former child actor who appeared in films such as “The Mighty Ducks” before running a firm in Hong Kong which sold the virtual gold that players use in the video game World of Warcraft.
He would have gotten into the complex crypto arena if the Trump campaign had not made its way to him. But his fondness for the virtual currency grew after he left the portals of the White House in August last year.
Prior to joining the Trump campaign team, Bannon credited the Internet Gaming Entertainment, where he served as vice chairman in 2005, for introducing him to young people who gathered online around video games, as well as became the source of strength in the “alt-right movement.”
In one of his speaking engagements last year, Bannon had said blockchain and cryptocurrency would bring true freedom.
“Central banks are in the business of debasing your currency. Central governments are in the business of debasing your citizenship. The central technology conglomerates are in the business of debasing your own personal sovereignty and your own personal data,” Bannon previously said.
Bannon, who spoke at an event in Zurich sponsored by the Swiss newspaper Die Weltwoche, had stated he would like to help other people develop their own digital currencies and touted the likelihood of coming up with one himself, which he would call “deplorables coin.” The term was once used by former First Lady Hillary Clinton to describe her supporters.
Bannon considered these emerging technologies as the “very heart” of a populist movement in Switzerland. He said cryptocurrency is the right tool to control financial elites, a group of entities he often criticize.
“We take control of the central banks away. That will give us the power again…Once you take control of your currency, once you take control of your data, once you take control of your citizenship, that’s when you’re going to have true freedom,” he said.
But the most sensible way to “break” in what he described as the growing globalized culture of economic oppression is with populist, nationalist movements including the one he popularized in America.
“These guys are visionaries,” he said, referring to the leaders in the crypto industry.
