During a rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump showered praise on cryptocurrency advocate Vivek Ramaswamy, dropping hints about a potential role for the entrepreneur in his administration if elected. Trump went on to state that Ramaswamy could be “in charge of one of these big monsters,” referring to government agencies, and asserted that he would “do a better job than anybody you can think of.”
While Trump described Ramaswamy as “smart as hell” and “nasty,” he initially believed that competing against him in the Republican primaries would be “easy.” However, Trump acknowledged that Ramaswamy’s campaign proved to be anything but. He also remarked that Ramaswamy possesses a wealth of knowledge that others lack.
In a recent tweet, Ramaswamy urged American voters to support Trump, highlighting his ability to “restore law and order in the country… defeat the deep state… fight inflation… and revive our national identity.” Ramaswamy dropped out of the GOP presidential race in January and subsequently endorsed Trump. He has also been active in advocating for the cryptocurrency industry. In November 2023, he unveiled a crypto plan aimed at protecting the industry, arguing that most cryptocurrencies should be classified as commodities, thus falling outside the purview of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Ramaswamy stressed the need for regulatory clarity in the space.
Currently, Ramaswamy is viewed as a long shot in the upcoming Ohio Senate election. Political betting markets indicate that he has an 11% chance of replacing J.D. Vance as Ohio’s U.S. senator. Meanwhile, Trump’s odds of winning the presidential election stand at 54%, with Kamala Harris’s odds at 45%.
The potential influence of Bitcoin as an institutional asset class will be a key topic at Benzinga’s upcoming Future of Digital Assets event on November 19.
