| In less than two weeks, Donald Trump's return to the White House has reopened the divide between Bitcoin maximalists and just about everyone else in crypto.
The Bitcoin purists, who believe that the original digital currency's network provides everything that investors and consumers want or need, quickly voiced their displeasure when Trump's long-awaited executive order on crypto called for studying the merits of creating a digital asset stockpile rather than declaring that Bitcoin would be at the focal point of a national reserve. They were also quick to point fingers at Ripple Labs Inc., which they allege lobbied Trump's circle to avoid establishing a Bitcoin-specific stockpile. Ripple, whose XRP was one of the first next-generation cryptocurrencies, has countered over X and elsewhere that the company supports all types of digital assets, including Bitcoin. "There has always existed a fault line between those who think of Bitcoin as a form of money and those who think of crypto as a new set of financial technology rails," said Austin Campbell, a professor at NYU's Stern School of Business and CEO of the stablecoin firm WSPN USA. "Those two camps do not agree and get along with each other because one of them is like, 'It's just Bitcoin, it's money. Why are you doing all this other stuff? It only creates profit.'" Campbell argues Bitcoiners are misreading Trump's tendency to praise and vilify something while also remaining noncommittal to either viewpoint. "I don't think Trump has turned on or hates Bitcoin or has a problem with it," Campbell said. "I wouldn't describe this as a yes versus no, but rather a 'yes, and …' Yes, I am interested in Bitcoin, but I am also interested in blockchain as financial technology." Since being converted to a true believer from someone who characterized Bitcoin as a scam during his first administration, Trump has avoided taking any side but his own – including launching a crypto project dubbed World Liberty Financial, memecoins named after himself and First Lady Melania Trump, and as of yesterday, a financial-services brand called Truth.Fi under Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. Truth.Fi, which says it will offer investments based on "America-First principles".
As my colleague Ryan Weeks pointed out earlier this week, the sparring between Bitcoin and Ripple is just one of many rifts that have burst into public view recently. The opening of a rift in the crypto community over what is most likely an intentionally vague executive order should serve as a wakeup call to a group accustomed to insularity, Campbell said. Especially when it comes to working together while they finally have a staunch, though mercurial, advocate in the White House. "It's typical of the crypto community to way over index on indicators and then get shocked when things don't turn out exactly the way they predict," Campbell said. "But now they're not the only voice in the room." | 
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