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Mooners & Shakers: Presidential hopeful RFK Jr wants USD backed with BTC; XRP, Stellar pump

As Bitcoin languishes in the twilight zone around $US30k, US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr has vowed to use it to stabilise the US dollar.

Rob Badman
'I see you there!' Picture: Getty Images
'I see you there!' Picture: Getty Images
4 min read
12:40PMJuly 20, 2023.
Updated 3:04PMJuly 20, 2023
Stockhead

Trading just under $US30k still, Bitcoin has decided, it seems, to set up shop somewhere between Nowheresville and Hopium.

The first is a swampy place built on uncertain, shaky foundations. The second is a bit more like Las Vegas – full of shiny dreams and holes in pockets.

One of those dreams is being touted by a big, croaky voice in US politics over the past day – the very-Bitcoin-friendly rogue Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

RFK Jr has vowed, as he hunts Biden’s job, that as President he would use Bitcoin (along with gold and silver) to stabilise the US dollar.

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He would also make Bitcoin profits exempt from capital gains tax.

Kennedy also backed up his previously stated position on Bitcoin back from May – in which he defended the public’s right to self-custody Bitcoin and generally just do lawful, Bitcoiny and crypto things.

“Backing dollars and US debt obligations with hard assets could help restore strength back to the dollar, rein in inflation and usher in a new era of American financial stability, peace and prosperity,” said Kennedy at a “Heal-the-Divide” Political Action Committee livestream event overnight.

The leader-of-the-free-world wannabe noted he would start the process “very, very small” with “perhaps 1% of issued T-bills” backed with “real finite assets”, such as gold, silver platinum and Bitcoin.

Crazier things have happened, right? Such as Trump becoming president, PEPE going to the moon and English wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow holding a catch.

Bitcoin and crypto has been a political talking point in the US all year, and what RFK Jr is suggesting doesn’t seem (to this Bitcoin-biased columnist anyway) a complete stretch some days. Even if he does have little chance of nabbing the top job.

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Top 10 overview

With the overall crypto market cap at $US1.24 trillion at noon Thursday (AEST), up about 0.3% since the same time Wednesday, here’s the current state of play among top 10 tokens – according to CoinGecko.

Source: CoinGecko
Source: CoinGecko

That place between Nowheresville and Hopium is probably actually Crabstown.

We might be sidewinding it around there for the majority of the rest of 2023 if you believe the prevailing expectations we’re seeing around the Cryptoverse.

It wouldn’t be the worst outcome.

In the meantime, while there’s a definite danger this year’s short-term traders, who are largely in profit with Bitcoin up 70% for 2023, could begin to sell out, sending the price of BTC lower, long-term hodlers are accumulating and the next Bitcoin halving is less than a year away.

Plus if the odd bit of positive news keeps trickling in, such as the XRP/Ripple court case boon and the likes of Larry Fink and Kennedy Jr talking things up, then we might just be able to slowly move on up and to the right.

Just on XRP, actually, its price has spiked again, sending the asset back above $US0.8 once more.

There’s no fresh news, just the wake of positivity surrounding the favourable ruling for Ripple in the SEC lawsuit that keeps, well, rippling.

The judge presiding over the case has asked both parties to consider upcoming dates for a settlement conference, which seems the most likely outcome in this long, messy ordeal.

Uppers and downers

Some of the biggest 24-hour gainers and losers at noon Thursday (AESTS). Stats based on CoinGecko.com data.

PUMPERS (11-100 market cap position)

  • Stellar (XLM), (market cap: $US4.38 billion) +23.3%
  • Hedera (HBAR), (market cap: $US1.91 billion) +10.8%
  • XDC Network (XDC), (market cap: $US528 million) +10.3%
  • FLEX Coin (FLEX), (market cap: $US443 million) +9.5%
  • Optimism (OP), (market cap: $US1.06 billion) +7.1%

It’s interesting to see XRP rival Stellar (XLM) pump pretty much whenever XRP does.

The latter has the more market-focused news, but XLM generally seems to do pretty well riding on the coat-tails of the leading crypto altcoin payments rail asset.

That said, Stellar has some news of its own here, which might explain the 18% surge.

As noted here by the CEO of Circle (USDC’s issuer) the Honeycoin App, powered by Stellar, now enables USDC cash outs at MoneyGram locations in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and the UK …

PUMPERS (lower, lower caps)

  • Augur (REP), (market cap: $US12 million) +49.5%
  •  r/CryptoCurrency Moons (MOON), (market cap: $US55 million) +37.4%
  • UXD Protocol (UXP), (market cap: $US46 million) +29.5%
  • Multichain (MULTI), (market cap: $US42 million) +23.2%
  • Kin (KIN), (market cap: $US28 million) +22.2%

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SLUMPERS (11-100 market cap position)

  • Sui (SUI), (market cap: $US469 million) -6%
  • Frax Share (FXS), (market cap: $US430 million) -5.1%
  • ApeCoin (APE), (market cap: $US751 billion) -4.7%
  • GALA (GALA), (market cap: $US635 million) -4.3%
  • Synthetix Network (SNX), (market cap: $US873 million) -3.1%

SLUMPERS (lower, lower caps)

  • Koda Cryptocurrency (KODA), (market cap: $US25 million) -85.1%
  • Dream Machine Token (DMT), (market cap: $US19 million) -14.8%
  • Paribus (PBX), (market cap: $12 million) -12.3%
  • Hegic (HEGIC), (market cap: $US13 million) -11.6%
  • Pepe 2.0 (PEPE2.0), (market cap: $US16 million) -11.5%

Around the blocks

Some pertinence and randomness that stuck with us on our morning moves through the Crypto Twitterverse.

This content first appeared on stockhead.com.au

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/stockhead/mooners-shakers-presidential-hopeful-rfk-jr-wants-usd-backed-with-btc-xrp-stellar-pump/news-story/be952169da82f96d6b498c37d71259ad