Bitcoin rises fast, Trump pays for hamburgers with Bitcoin and Texas wants fewer crypto companies

The Republican Party no longer knows what to do with crypto and Bitcoin and how they should position themselves. Their presidential candidate, Donald Trump, needs young voters and is promoting Bitcoin as often as he can.

At the same time, the largest and most important Republican state, Texas, has recently become increasingly reluctant to allow major crypto mining companies to establish themselves in their territory as its population grows wary of the industry.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin is soaring higher fast now that it is clear that the prolonged period of high interest rates in the United States is coming to an end. At the time of writing, the biggest digital currency is trading for $63,600. In the past week alone, Bitcoin rose by 10%.

Hamburgers

On Wednesday evening in New York (Thursday morning in Europe), Trump made an OTR stop (as they are called for presidential campaigns), or an ‘off the record’ stop. He went to the Pubkey bar in New York and bought some hamburgers for his supporters who eagerly cheered him on. Crypto influencer Anthony Pompliano was also present.

What was remarkable is that he paid in Bitcoin (via his own crypto wallet, the campaign team said).

The fact that a former American president pays for food with Bitcoin is of course historic, but it is clear that Donald Trump has become very crypto-friendly in recent years. He has at least a million dollars in crypto, has his own coin ($WLFI) launching soon and his son Barron is a major crypto fan.

Texas

At the same time, an anti-crypto movement has started in the largest Republican state (Texas) precisely because too many crypto mining companies have established themselves in the ‘Lone Star State’ in recent years.

These came over when China banned Bitcoin mining on its territory in 2021 and many companies were forced to relocate. There has been a real Bitcoin boom in Texas in recent years, but that also comes with complaints from residents about noise pollution and concerns about the state of the electricity grid.

The Daily Texan calculated that Bitcoin mines will use about 50% of the state’s electricity in the coming years. The Economist also talked about it.

When the demand for electricity peaks in Texas (during a cold winter day or a heat wave), the Bitcoin mines of course sell extra electricity back to the state, but what if in the future it is more interesting for them to continue using that electricity to mine Bitcoin.

Suppose the price of Bitcoin reaches $100,000 one day, would a company like Marathon Digital still want to sell extra electricity to the Texas power grid on a cold winter day, or would it rather use that electricity to mine more Bitcoin and make even more profit?