The The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the official GOP body which works to elect Republican members of congress, will accept donations in cryptocurrency, members of the committee told Axios.
This move by the NRCC makes it the first national party committee to accept donations in cryptocurrency, although donations will be immediately converted into dollars before arriving in the NRCC account.
The NRCC told Axios that it will use BitPay, a popular cryptocurrency payment processing service aimed at merchants. BitPay’s model is similar to PayPal’s, in that it allows third parties to easily integrate the cryptocurrency processor as a payment system on their websites.
In a statement, NRCC chairman Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) said use of the technology would help Republicans succeed. In addition to chairing the NRCC, Rep. Emmer is co-chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus
“We are focused on pursuing every avenue possible to further our mission of stopping Nancy Pelosi’s socialist agenda and retaking the House majority, and this innovative technology will help provide Republicans the resources we need to succeed.”
Receiving support from congressional Republicans is major news for the burgeoning cryptocurrency industry, following a period of rocky relations with the Trump administration.
Trump is anti-bitcoin, calling it “volatile” and a “scam” — the former comment, made during the third year of his presidency, drew a wide backlash from the conservative base, which counts many cryptocurrency advocates among its members.
The Trump administration attempted to regulate cryptocurrency, leading to warnings from the CEO of Coinbase that such a move would empower financial censors.
Bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, is decentralized by design, not under the control of any one person or centralized institution. As fiat financial institutions have withdrawn service from conservatives (most recently, Wells Fargo shut down an account for former GOP Senate candidate Lauren Witzke), some have argued that cryptocurrency is a solution to financial blacklisting.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.
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