Trump posted about an old video on his Truth Social account while describing it as the Greatest Bitcoin explanation of all time.
In 2018, Peter Van Valkenburgh, Director of Research at the non-profit think tank Coin Center, delivered powerful testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. In the video, Van Valkenburgh provides a concise and passionate defense of Bitcoin (BTC) as a decentralized, censorship-resistant financial technology.
On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump reposted the video on his Truth Social account, hailing it as the “Greatest Bitcoin explanation of all time.” Valkenburgh says,
Bitcoin is the world’s first globally accessible public money. Is it perfect?No. Neither was e-mail when it was invented in 1972. Bitcoin is not the best money on every margin.
It’s not yet accepted everywhere, it’s not used often to quote prices, and it’s not always a stable store of value. But it is working, and the mere fact that it works without trusted intermediaries is amazing.
Van Valkenburgh went on to explain why public, decentralized infrastructure, like blockchains, matters now more than ever. If we can replace private payment systems, he argued, then maybe we can also remove other private gatekeepers that limit human interaction and innovation.
He posed a series of questions: Why invest in public infrastructure? Why work to improve blockchains, even if they’re still imperfect? And why should we make sure the pioneers of this technology stay in the U.S. instead of being driven overseas?
His answer was simple: because the private corporations that control so much of today’s essential infrastructure are becoming fewer, bigger, and more powerful, and when they fail, the consequences are enormous.
He pointed to the massive 2017 Equifax breach, which exposed the Social Security numbers of 143 million Americans, and the SWIFT banking network, which has been used to funnel hundreds of millions in fraudulent transactions through hacked institutions in countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ecuador, and Russia.
To Van Valkenburgh, these failures are signs that the system itself needs to change.
In his first term, Donald Trump was one of Bitcoin’s loudest critics, calling it a “scam” and insisting it would never rival the U.S. dollar. But by 2024, something had clearly changed. He began championing pro-crypto policies, proposed the creation of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and even launched his own meme coins (TRUMP).
On stage at crypto conferences, he promised to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet,” vowed to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler, appoint a dedicated crypto czar, and sign executive orders to deregulate the space. His influence was quickly felt. By March 2025, federal regulators gave banks the green light to engage in crypto without needing prior approval.
The following month, the Justice Department disbanded its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, citing a presidential directive to stop targeting citizens for using blockchain networks.
Last week, Crypto News Flash reported that Trump signed the GENIUS Act, a sweeping law allowing banks, credit unions, and even nonbank institutions to issue stablecoins under federal guidelines.
As a result of this chain of actions, Bitcoin reached $109,000 just before his second inauguration, and continues to climb. As of today, BTC trades at $119,513, with a market cap of $2.37 trillion and daily volume up 41.45%, reflecting just how deeply Trump’s crypto pivot has shaped Bitcoin’s trajectory.
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