Impartial presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) has acquired simply $61,000 in Bitcoin donations past 2023, in keeping with an evaluation by blockchain analytics platform Breadcrumbs.
The figures are modest in comparison with Kennedy's general fundraising success. His 2024 marketing campaign has raised greater than $100 million, in keeping with Open Secrets and techniques knowledge..
Monitoring Challenges
The $61,000 value of Bitcoin donations had been collected between June and September 2023, in keeping with Federal Election Fee (FEC) data. As of October 1, 2023, the marketing campaign has stopped reporting Bitcoin donations, which can point out a lower in Bitcoin donations or a change in reporting methodology.
Breadcrumbs' evaluation explains that the Kennedy marketing campaign is utilizing OpenNode to transact bitcoin through the Lightning Community, which operates off-chain and complicates transparency.
Moreover, this marketing campaign employed a number of stealth Bitcoin addresses, creating new addresses for every donation, additional obscuring donation totals.
The corporate concluded:
“BTC donation knowledge has been arduous to search out resulting from an absence of clear reporting by his marketing campaign.”
In the meantime, the whole quantity of Bitcoin donations could possibly be even larger if we take note of doable donations acquired on the current Bitcoin convention.
Bitcoin Proponents
Regardless of his restricted Bitcoin donations, RFK Jr. stays a staunch supporter of the flagship digital asset: He grew to become the primary U.S. presidential candidate to just accept Bitcoin donations final yr and has been a vocal proponent of pro-cryptocurrency insurance policies throughout his marketing campaign.
At a current Bitcoin convention, Kennedy revealed that he has most of his belongings invested in Bitcoin and made plenty of guarantees that may permit the business to thrive below his administration.
A kind of pledges was to signal an govt order on his first day in workplace designating Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset for the U.S. Moreover, he proposed making Bitcoin tax-exempt and treating it as a foreign money, moderately than subjecting it to capital beneficial properties tax.
In keeping with him, these plans are a part of a broader financial technique aimed toward backing the US greenback with Bitcoin to bolster the nation's monetary stability.
Notably, these positions have garnered help from distinguished crypto figures, together with Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.
