Vivek Ramaswamy, US Presidential Candidate, Embraces Bitcoin for Campaign Contributions

Vivek Ramaswamy becomes the second 2024 presidential candidate in the United States to officially accept Bitcoin donations

Vivek Ramaswamy has announced that he will accept Bitcoin donations for his campaign. This makes him the second presidential candidate in the United States for the 2024 election to embrace Bitcoin as a means of receiving campaign contributions.

Bitcoin Price Update

BTC: $26,797

During the announcement, Ramaswamy encouraged supporters to donate as little as $1 in Bitcoin. His decision to accept Bitcoin donations comes just two days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became the first presidential candidate in US history to accept campaign contributions in Bitcoin. Ramaswamy made this declaration while speaking on stage at Bitcoin 2023 in Miami, Florida, emphasizing his desire to make the 2024 election a referendum on fiat currency.

While on stage, Ramaswamy displayed a QR code that, when scanned, would direct users to a payment gateway offering various payment options for donations. These options include Bitcoin (BTC) and satoshis, the smallest denomination of Bitcoin.

BitPay’s Payment Service

Ramaswamy has chosen to use BitPay’s payment service to receive Bitcoin donations. BitPay also supports other cryptocurrencies, including:

• Bitcoin Cash (BCH) – $114
• Ether (ETH) – $1,805
• ApeCoin (APE) – $3.43
• Litecoin (LTC) – $91.10
• Dogecoin (DOGE) – $0.07
• Shiba Inu (SHIB) – $0.000009

US citizens and permanent residents who are eligible can contribute up to $6,600 for the campaign. However, these contributions are not tax-deductible as charitable donations for federal income tax purposes. As a token of appreciation, donors will receive a nonfungible token (NFT), and the donation page indicates that donors can claim their NFT after making their donation.

In February, lawmakers in the Kansas House of Representatives introduced a bill that proposed a cap of $100 for cryptocurrency political donations. Under this bill, donations under $100 would need to be immediately converted to US dollars, cannot be used for expenditures, and cannot be held as an investment (hodl).