An unlikely alliance backing Donald Trump has emerged as a new political force in 2024: crypto libertarians and some vocal tech-world figures from Silicon Valley.

The union is helping to fill Trump's campaign coffers and could become a central player in Washington next year if Republicans take control.

Trump will look to solidify this support Saturday as he prepares to speak at 3 p.m. ET to thousands attending Bitcoin 2024, a three-day conference in Nashville that is billed as the largest crypto gathering in the world.

Saturday’s speech is the culmination of Trump's evolution on the issue. He kept his distance from crypto while in office, and in a 2021 Fox Business interview Trump opined that bitcoin "just seems like a scam."

More recently, he began offering supportive words and consulting with those in the industry.

One of those meetings was with executives for Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (MARA). They met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club and residence in Palm Beach, Fla., a month and a half ago to discuss lower taxes and even whether the US government should start buying bitcoin (BTC-USD).

"He has put a team around him that is educating him on this technology, and he's also engaged directly with the industry," Jayson Browder, senior vice president of government affairs for Marathon, told Yahoo Finance.

At the same time, some figures from Silicon Valley have been making it clear that they like Trump's support for the crypto industry.

Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who run a firm that has invested in crypto, made this point in a podcast last week as they also discussed their disappointment with the approach of the Biden administration.

The White House, Horowitz said, has "basically subverted the rule of law to attack the crypto industry."

The Securities and Exchange Commission has brought enforcement actions against some of the industry's biggest players, including Coinbase Global (COIN) and Robinhood (HOOD).

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban posted on X that some Silicon Valley support for Trump was a "bitcoin play" but "not because the former president is a far stronger proponent of crypto."

Instead, he said, it's because Trump's policies of lower tax rates and tariffs "will drive the price" of bitcoin higher.

Higher tariffs open the possibility that in the White House Trump may seek to weaken the US dollar, a policy goal considered both controversial and difficult to achieve. But such a goal would present more reason for investors to seek out digital assets, bitcoin in particular, as a safe haven.

"There are clearly economic forces at work that are creating alignment with people from Silicon Valley," said Trevor Traina, a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur who co-hosted a fundraiser for Trump earlier this year and has emerged as a conduit between the Trump campaign and the crypto community.

The fundraiser with tech executives marked Trump's first time inside the San Francisco city limits in years. The gathering at the home of billionaire investor David O. Sacks featured a strong crypto presence and raised a reported $12 million from tech executives.

The organizer of this weekend's Bitcoin 2024, David Bailey, explained the former president's embrace of the industry this way to Yahoo Finance: "Donald Trump is a businessman first and foremost, and he sees a good opportunity and bitcoin is the greatest opportunity for this country."

Some crypto-world focus on Kamala Harris

The crypto world’s support of Trump has also been complicated somewhat this week by the ascension of Kamala Harris.

She is now the Democratic standard bearer and rose to prominence in San Francisco where she has been known for having an open dialogue with technology leaders on issues like AI and other fronts. Her views on digital assets aren't clear.

On Tuesday over X, Bailey said his team was "in talks" with the Harris campaign to have her speak at the conference, and then Wednesday he said it wasn't happening.

"It would have been a disaster for her," he said.

Others are more interested. Marathon's Browder — who is chiefly focused on preventing the Biden administration's proposed 30% energy tax on bitcoin miners — said there is reason to hear out Harris.

"We would love to work with Vice President Harris on this," Browder added.

Even without Harris, attendees will get a Democrat perspective this weekend. Rep. Ro Khanna, who represents a big chunk of Silicon Valley in Congress, is offering a "Progressive Vision for Bitcoin" in his own panel Saturday.

But the clear focus this weekend will be on Trump, who is set to make two stops as he tries to capitalize on this weekend's festivities in his search for both dollars and for broader crypto-world support.

The former president is set to deliver his keynote address to the conference at 3 p.m. ET and is also attending a high-dollar fundraiser where attendees will need to pay between $60,000 and $844,600 to attend, according to an online sign-up sheet.

Donations can, naturally, be made in cryptocurrency and will be distributed among Trump's campaign and a wide array of supporting organizations, including over 40 state Republican parties, to comply with campaign finance limits.

A range of other politically themed speakers came to Bitcoin 2024, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The long-shot candidate spoke Friday and announced a plan to use the government to build a reserve of at least 4 million bitcoins.

It was Kennedy's second appearance at the conference, and he took note of the political overtones this year, expressing a hope that Trump and others weren't talking up bitcoin for "cynical political reasons.”

"It is my hope that President Trump and the DNC nominee, whoever he or she may be, will develop a deeper understanding of the earth-shaking reasons to ensure that bitcoin has a strategic reserve in the US Treasury," he added.

Other political speakers at the conference included figures like Senate Banking committee ranking member Tim Scott and Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy, who speaks Saturday.

What the crypto community wants from Trump

What the wider crypto community wants is more favorable regulation from the next US president.

Its regulatory wish list ranges from tax cuts and stablecoin legislation to rules that distinguish which crypto tokens are securities and therefore fall under the scrutiny of the SEC. The crypto world also wants the SEC to curtail its aggressive crackdown on the industry.

"We should be able to flourish in the United States like any other industry that is abiding by the law and we shouldn't be targeted," said Browder.

On Saturday Marathon executives will meet with Trump and Tennessee’s Republican Senators Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn, as well as Rep. Khanna.

"I think it's phenomenal that someone like Trump is able to connect with the American populace and say, 'Hey, this is an asset and money that represents open freedom,'" said Jack Mallers, CEO of bitcoin payment provider Strike.

As for what the current administration could do quickly to get a second look from the community, Traina offered something simpler: "Biden should fire [SEC Chairman Gary] Gensler."

There is also a sense that Trump’s growing appeal within the crypto community and in Silicon Valley more broadly is due to a range of other issues.

Harmeet Dhillon — the former vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party who was in attendance at the Sacks fundraiser — suggests law and order is a key area where Trump's appeal reaches the community.

"What I heard at the fundraiser was families, wives, and kids of billionaires talking about how they don’t feel safe anymore physically," she said in a recent interview, speaking about crime in San Francisco.

She said issues like personal safety align with economic ones, especially for the crypto community, adding, "They’re entrepreneurs, the rules are being made up as we speak and there’s a huge difference between the Democrats and Republicans on this issue."

Traina said that Trump's legal troubles — and perceived government overreach in response — has "triggered people and their memories" and has helped drive many libertarian-minded tech supporters into Trump’s camp.

David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance. Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

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