Will Donald J. Trump, the next President of the United States, be good for bitcoin?

That’s a question many in the cryptocurrency space are currently grappling with. Many do believe that a Trump presidency will be good for the bitcoin market — but some also believe it will be good only because Trump could trash the economy badly enough to make bitcoin a safe haven.

Negatives

Bitcoin surged along with gold on Wednesday as investors were looking for places to park their money. The uncertainty following an election result that few predicted saw global equity markets plunge, though markets surged higher in the U.S. to its biggest weekly gain since December 2011. The former was attributed by The Next Web to some believing a Trump presidency could spell the end of markets and cash as we know it:

People are becoming increasingly unsure about the future of their country, and that’s why they’re buying gold and bitcoin, bringing up the price. Both are seen as investments that would retain its value in a doomsday scenario where regular fiat currencies would quickly crash.

Bitcoin headed downward as the markets recovered, coming off a high of $732 to settle at $702 as of early Monday morning in Europe.

Neutral

Michael J. Casey from the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, writing for Coindesk, is negative on the Trump presidency itself but suggests that disastrous economic policies could lead to the rise of bitcoin or an alternative digital currency in place of the U.S. dollar:

So if, you’re worried and/or excited about the disruption that a Trump presidency could do to the global monetary system  –  I’m both, I suppose  –  bitcoin might just be a creative way to bet on whatever emerges next.

Positives

Two positives, at least for bitcoin, do come out of the Trump presidency, one is related to his proposed changes to financial laws, and the second comes from some one who has had advising him on policy.

Renowned Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel (above) has been appointed to Trump’s transition committee and given his prominent position in the campaign, both as a speaker and donor of Trump himself, it is likely that he may be given a position in the administration itself. Thiel is an investor in bitcoin and blockchain companies, meaning that someone near the top of power actually understands how the sector works. Moreover, he even said in 2013 that bitcoin has the potential to save the world.

The second potential positive from a Trump presidency includes changes to financial laws, including the reform or elimination of the Dodd-Frank Act, an act used to stop Bitfinex using leveraged trading and also used to strictly enforce KYC regulations, along with a possible easing of SEC rules relating to crowdfunding, according to a report from Coinjournal.

Whatever a Trump presidency brings, there’s one thing for sure: Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere for the time being.

Image credit: heisenbergmedia/Flickr/CC by 2.0