Edward Snowden Warns Against Politicians Co-opting Bitcoin at Annual Conference
In recent years, bitcoin conferences have seen an influx of politicians, including Wyoming senator Cynthia Lummis, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Vivek Ramaswamy. This year, Donald J. Trump’s decision to fundraise at the annual Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, garnered significant attention ahead of the 2024 November election.
During the conference, exiled NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, speaking from Russia, expressed serious concerns about the increasing presence of politicians in the cryptocurrency space.
"I notice we have a lot more political representation here,” Snowden remarked, questioning their true motives. “They fight us, then they try to get us to love them.”
He urged caution, advising, “Cast a vote but don’t join a cult. They are not our tribe. They are not your personality. They have their own interests. Don’t give yourselves to them, even if you have to vote for them."
Snowden's comments likely alluded to Trump's appearance at the conference, where he promised to remove Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which drew enthusiastic applause. Gensler has been criticized by the industry for his aggressive actions against crypto firms, including Coinbase and Kraken, under the SEC's “regulation by enforcement” strategy.
Snowden also warned bitcoin enthusiasts to be wary of the underlying power structures in the U.S., suggesting that a change in administration might not lead to significant differences for the average person. “As far as the average worker is concerned, whether we're talking about this election or any other in the last 20 years, a given election tends to result in what feels like a different uniform on the same cop,” Snowden observed. “And that's a problem.”
He highlighted economic issues, stating, “Look at the economy. There’s an increasing concentration of resources into fewer and fewer hands. You play by their rules or you don’t play at all, and that should be changing."