Why The “Bitcoin President” Is Really More Of An “Ethereum President”

Donald Trump’s recent cryptocurrency moves reveal a more substantial alignment with Ethereum’s ecosystem than Bitcoin, challenging the “Bitcoin President” label and highlighting the evolving dynamics between major blockchain platforms.
President Donald Trump takes questions from the press (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
In a surprising twist that has created controversy in the Bitcoin community, recent moves by Donald J. Trump’s newly launched World Liberty Financial have cast fresh light on the differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum.
At the heart of the controversy is a transaction involving wrapped bitcoin and bitcoin, terms that are anything but synonymous.
Trump’s Inauguration Crypto Acquisitions Exclude Bitcoin
On January 20th, Donald Trump Jr. posted a series of strategic token purchases that commemorated the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States. The purchases included:
$47,000,000 in ETH
$47,000,000 in wBTC
$4,700,000 in Aave
$4,700,000 in LINK
$4,700,000 in TRX
$4,700,000 in ENA
At first glance, this might appear to affirm bitcoin’s centrality in Trump’s digital currency realm. However, a closer look reveals that aside from TRX, all tokens are Ethereum-based assets.
Wrapped Bitcoin, for example, is not stored on the bitcoin blockchain but instead exists as an ERC20 token on Ethereum. It is backed 1:1 by bitcoin through a complex minting process that involves trusted custodians and merchant intermediaries.