Speaking at this year’s Bitcoin Conference in Nashville on Saturday, Trump said that crypto is essential to his vision of America in the future, Russia Today reported.

He pledged to ensure that the US government never sells off its bitcoin holdings and creates a bitcoin “strategic reserve,” predicting that the cryptocurrency could one day eclipse gold’s $16 trillion market capitalization.

“For too long our government has violated the cardinal rule that every bitcoiner knows by heart: Never sell your bitcoin… This afternoon I’m laying out my plan to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world, and we’ll get it done,” Trump vowed.

“If I am elected, it will be the policy of my administration… to keep 100% of all the bitcoin the US government currently holds or acquires into the future. This will serve, in effect, as the core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile,” he stated.

Trump, who in 2019 wrote on social media that bitcoin’s value is “based on thin air” and in 2021 warned that cryptocurrencies were a “disaster waiting to happen,” made a U-turn in his rhetoric early in the current election campaign. In May, his campaign began accepting donations in cryptocurrency.

In Nashville, Trump promised that if he is in office the US “will have regulations” on crypto, but “from now on the rules will be written by people who love [crypto] industry, not hate [it].”