Trump reaffirms crypto commitment at New York Stock Exchange visit: CNBC Crypto World

Today, Bitcoin inches higher once again, hovering around $100,000. President-elect Donald Trump reiterates his commitment to crypto while ringing the opening bell on Wall Street. And Texas is introducing a bill to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve. We speak with Dennis Porter from the Satoshi Action Fund. Welcome to CNBC's Crypto World, I'm Tanea McKeel. Crypto markets in the green for a second day after economic data showed inflation ticking higher. As of noon Eastern, Bitcoin crossed above $101,000. Ether traded at $39.36 and Solana inched higher to $230. Yesterday, Tom Lee of Fundstrat joined CNBC's closing bell to share his 2025 Bitcoin price target. He's long been a proponent of the asset and remains optimistic on its trajectory in the near term. We think it's going to follow a similar halving cycle that we've seen in the past that imply something around $250,000 for Bitcoin in 2025. And on top of that, we have a Trump put because Bitcoin is potentially a strategic reserve asset for the U.S. government. All right, let's talk about the top stories. President-elect Trump yet again touted his pro-crypto stance, this time in a conversation with CNBC after ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Jim Cramer asked specifically about his embrace of crypto, and Trump emphasized his desire to keep the U.S. competitive in the space. We're going to do something great with crypto because we don't want China or anybody else, not just China, but others are embracing it and we want to be the head. Since his electoral victory, Trump's transition team has tapped people championed by the crypto industry to lead various agencies, including Scott Besant for Treasury Secretary, Paul Atkins for SEC Chair, and David Sachs for a White House crypto and AI czar. Next, shares of riot platforms jumping this morning after the Wall Street Journal reported activist investor Starboard Value has taken a significant, undisclosed position in the Bitcoin miner. The journal said Starboard is pushing for the company to convert some of its Bitcoin mining facilities into space for big data center users. The investment comes as pure play mining stocks have faced pressure this year, as Bitcoin ETFs, launched in January, gave investors a new way to get exposure to Bitcoin. On top of that, rewards for mining got slashed following the in April. And in light of all this, other miners like IREN, Core Scientific and TeraWolf made pivots to AI and outperformed. As of noon Eastern, shares of Riot popped about 10 percent, although it's still down more than 16.5 percent for the year. All right, we have some news out of Texas for our main story. Just today, lawmakers there introduced a bill to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. The proposal would let the state build that reserve by accepting taxes, fees and donations in Bitcoin, and those holdings would have to be kept for a minimum of five years. If passed, Texas could prove to be a testing ground for a reserve at the federal level managed by the U.S. Treasury. I spoke to Dennis Porter, CEO of the Satoshi Action Fund, about the bill, the likelihood it'll pass and what it means for the U.S. Well, Dennis Porter, thank you so much for joining us on Crypto World today. The Texas legislature introducing a bill today that would establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. You have been working with the lawmaker on this proposed legislation. Tell us a little bit about what's in it. Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for having me on. We have been honored to be able to work with Chairman Capriglione on this legislation. It is a bill that is a first of its kind for the state of Texas. It is the second bill ever in U.S. history to be introduced at the state level to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. We were able to be the first to do that in Pennsylvania as well. And we're just extremely excited about this opportunity to put Texas as a leader on Bitcoin once again. It has been a leader for some time, and it will be again with a strategic Bitcoin reserve. And the legislation essentially allows for the establishment of a strategic reserve for Bitcoin and allows for donations, taxes, and fees to be paid in Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency. And then, of course, other forms of cryptocurrency will be converted to Bitcoin and placed into the strategic Bitcoin reserve. Tell me a little bit more about the way the funds are moving into the reserve. So taxes, donations, and fees. I mean, I think that's really interesting just because of the high concentration of miners that are hosted by the state. Is it likely that we will see, you know, whether it's individuals or some of these major mining companies themselves opt in to be paying their taxes in Bitcoin? Absolutely. I think there will actually be a rush of Bitcoin mining companies who will want to pay their taxes in Bitcoin just purely to show that they support this new establishment of the strategic Bitcoin reserve. A lot of the Bitcoin miners that we speak to, some of the largest Bitcoin miners in the world, in fact, have endorsed strategic Bitcoin reserve legislation and are advocating for it not only at the state level, but at the federal level as well. So we are certain to see those Bitcoin miners want to be the first to pay their taxes in Bitcoin because they support the strategic Bitcoin reserve in Texas. But also, I believe there is going to be a number of Bitcoin companies and Bitcoin individuals that are Texans that will want to donate to the strategic reserve as well. Are there any arguments against doing that? I mean, it's an ever-changing market and landscape, and there are so many questions around filing taxes in crypto and tax implications in crypto. I mean, does that not assume that people paying their taxes in Bitcoin will have to pay taxes on their taxes, if that makes sense? Yeah, certainly. That is a great question. I think what would happen most likely is that the taxes that are paid in Bitcoin by some of these companies are the Bitcoin that they just received. So they're not going to spend the Bitcoin that they've been holding for the last four or five years, which has significant capital gains implications. They'll likely just use the Bitcoin which was just coming in, which hasn't had any appreciation so that they can pay those taxes. And they may also use some of the Bitcoin that has gone down in value since they mined it to also capture those losses as well. Talk to me about Bitcoin buying strategies. So it's not a piece of legislation that I believe outlines a planned buying schedule of a certain amount. I think you said at the top that the Bitcoin would have to be held for a minimum of five years through the taxes, donations and fees. What have your conversations been like with the lawmaker and is there anything that has come up that has sort of deterred him from, in this initial proposal at least, wanting to buy Bitcoin directly? Yes, certainly we want states to buy Bitcoin directly or to find other avenues that they can add Bitcoin to their reserves. But for the state of Texas, it's a very big state and getting this type of legislation, which is really, I mean, it's cutting edge legislation to get it across the finish line. We believe at Satoshi Action that it is critical to establish the reserve, enable taxes and donations to be paid in Bitcoin, and then come back for the other half later. The other half being, let's get actual purchases of Bitcoin being made and added to the reserve. This is the strategy that we're pursuing across the country. We have over 10 states now that are going to be introducing this legislation. And also multiple countries have reached out to us as well, asking us to help them introduce and pass strategic Bitcoin reserve legislation into law. And so our goal will be to first start with what's achievable, establish the reserve, allow them to put taxes and donations into it, and then come back the following legislative cycles to establish more legislation that will enable these states to purchase Bitcoin directly. Okay, so tell me about the legislative cycle. What is the time frame that we're looking at here? How often do they meet? And when should we expect to see any progress on this? It's a great question. So every state's different. You have all 50 states with different legislative cycles. Some meet every year, some meet every other year. And most states, it's a very short session. So in Texas, it's an extremely short session. They only meet every other year. So it's somewhat of a race the moment the legislative cycle begins. We have to move extremely quickly to get a committee hearing, which the chairman is going to be able to establish that pretty quickly. And then from there, once we get out of the hearing, we try to pass it in the house. And then of course, switch sides to the Senate. But during that spaces, the chairman did say that there is a senator who is interested in running this bill on the Senate side. So we're feeling very confident about the chances of passing this in Texas. But there is also, just for the listeners to know, there is another state that recently passed similar legislation out of a task force. It's a task force ran by lawmakers. And that task force, whenever it passes legislation out of the task force in the off season, 100% of the bills that make it through that task force get passed into law. And our model policy at Satoshi Action just recently was passed out of that task force. So we give it a near 100% chance of passing into law. And then obviously, the idea of a strategic Bitcoin reserve, it just has become a more exciting and popular theme since the election. It was one of Donald Trump's biggest pro-crypto promises to the industry on his campaign. How does this compare to that? Obviously, at the state level versus the federal level, the money management is different. But what, if any, implications are there at the federal level if we see Texas successfully launch this and serve as a little testing ground, I guess, for the US? It's a great question. Again, the state level, in our opinion, is the best place to create political momentum for Bitcoin. We use the states as a laboratory of democracy. Recently, in the Twitter spaces that I was on with Senator Lummis, we had a one-on-one conversation last week about the importance of the states. She said the states are the incubators for good ideas. I 100% agree with Senator Lummis. And of course, we fully endorse her legislation at the federal level. And we will be working with her to help get it across the finish line. But in our opinion, at Satoshi Action, the very best thing that we can be doing is passing this legislation at the state level, providing political momentum for federal legislation. A lot of different industries, a lot of different movements have used the states in the past. Everything from a women's right to vote to the civil rights movement to the cannabis industry, which we see happening right in front of us right now. Despite it being a federal ban on cannabis in this country, 75% of the states have passed pro-cannabis laws. We think we can accomplish the exact same strategy with Bitcoin, and we're doing it at Satoshi Action. Okay, that's all for Crypto World today. We'll be back again tomorrow and we'll see you then.