Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.. Kennedy Jr.) said the decision was made after many criticized him for comments made at a bitcoin-focused conference in Miami. As some people put it, “Kennedy Jr. is endorsing a volatile commodity while not being in the game himself”. The politician explained that immediately after this conference he decided to gift two bitcoins each to his children.
During a speech at the Bitcoin Miami Conference in May, the presidential candidate denied personally investing in the cryptocurrency. It was later revealed that he owned between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of bitcoins at the end of June. However, if the politician had bought 14 BTC at an approximate rate of $26,800, the total value of those bitcoins would have exceeded $380,000 at the end of June.
Kennedy Jr. has also spoken out about banning bitcoin mining in some U.S. states. Last year, the New York State Senate backed legislation for a two-year moratorium on mining out of concerns that bitcoin mining was negatively impacting the environment. However, Kennedy Jr. called such arguments unfounded.
<blockquote.
“I believe that anti-bitcoin statements in defense of environmentalism are simply a smokescreen to hide the true motives for suppressing bitcoin, because it threatens the monopoly of money,” Kennedy Jr. said.
He called bitcoin a means of bringing innovation back to the U.S.. Any capital gains exemptions for bitcoin conversions should only apply to small investors and small businesses so as not to create huge windfall profits for large companies like BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, Kennedy Jr. believes.
The politician recently promised that if he wins the upcoming presidential election, he will back the dollar’s influence with bitcoin to curb inflation.