NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2014 A block away from the neon-lit buzz of Lower Broadway, where honky-tonk pours onto the city\u2019s main drag at all hours, stands the Music City Center, a venue that\u2019s hosted everything from\u00a0craft beer conferences\u00a0to a performance by the\u00a0legendary Dolly Parton.<\/p>\n
In late July, the complex filled up for something entirely different. It was the\u00a0biggest bitcoin conference\u00a0of the year, and the headline act was none other than former President\u00a0Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
For nearly 50 minutes on a Saturday afternoon in the country music capital, the Republican nominee for president extolled the virtues of bitcoin and spelled out what a second Trump administration would mean for the crypto industry to a packed crowd of conferencegoers who\u2019d spent hours getting through the Secret Service\u2019s tight security protocol.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA,\u201d\u00a0Trump declared, in a message targeted to the industry\u2019s bitcoin miners, who secure the network by running large banks of high-powered machines. \u201cWe will be creating so much electricity that you\u2019ll be saying, \u2018Please, please, President, we don\u2019t want any more electricity. We can\u2019t stand it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The speech, which read like it was straight out of a bitcoiner\u2019s bible, was quite the about-face for an ex-president who three years earlier had dismissed the cryptocurrency as a\u00a0\u201cscam.\u201d\u00a0Trump was, no doubt, lured by the potential of huge amounts of donor money from an industry that sees itself as under constant attack from the Biden-Harris administration and the heavy regulatory hand of SEC Chair\u00a0Gary Gensler.<\/p>\n
Trump told the audience in Nashville that he\u2019d raised $25 million in crypto-related funds, a number that CNBC hasn\u2019t been able to independently verify.<\/p>\n
Turning Trump from a skeptic into a sudden bitcoin evangelist took the work, behind closed doors, of a small army of bitcoiners and other crypto advocates who were able to maneuver their way into the candidate\u2019s inner circle. In particular, three friends in Puerto Rico came together to try and convince the Republican presidential hopeful of bitcoin\u2019s value, and to eventually make that position loud and clear to a key audience in Nashville.<\/p>\n
In bitcoin parlance, Trump was \u201corange-pilled.\u201d It\u2019s a play on the phrase \u201cred pill\u201d from the 1999 film, \u201cThe Matrix.\u201d In the movie, the main character, Neo (played by Keanu Reeves), is given a choice of taking a red pill, which offers access to the unsettling truth about the world, or a blue pill, which signifies a false but far more comforting version of reality.<\/p>\n
Orange pill refers to bitcoin\u2019s official color and represents a person\u2019s dedication to bitcoin over fiat currencies.<\/p>\n
Within the matrix of confidantes, friends, family members and colleagues united in their mission to orange-pill Trump were the trio of Puerto Rico residents: Amanda Fabiano, the shadow chief of bitcoin miners; Tracy Hoyos-L\u00f3pez, a former California prosecutor; and David Bailey, CEO of media group BTC Inc. and organizer of the conference in Nashville.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Bailey promised to turn out\u00a0$100 million and 5 million votes\u00a0for Trump. CNBC is told an update on fundraising numbers is coming soon.<\/p>\n
Over the Memorial Day weekend at a steakhouse called Bottles in the Guaynabo suburb of San Juan, the three began mapping out a plan as they shared family style dishes.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how Fabiano recounted the initial exchange to CNBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were at dinner with a bunch of people, and David was like, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve been talking to the administration, and I want to do a roundtable on mining, Can we chat this weekend?\u2019\u201d Fabiano said.<\/p>\n
Bailey had spent months in dialogue with the Trump campaign, swapping bitcoin briefs and messages. He was about to make the 1,600-mile trek to meet the former president for the first time at Trump Tower in Manhattan, and was keen to deliver details of a potentially lucrative fundraiser and a miners working group featuring some of the top CEOs in the industry. It would serve as a prelude for what was to come in Nashville.<\/p>\n
Hoyos-L\u00f3pez, Bailey\u2019s neighbor, had been recently orange-pilled, and was anxious to help out any way she could in getting Trump to Nashville. She happened to have a contact in the Trump orbit who was willing to make an introduction. Meanwhile, Fabiano\u2019s history in bitcoin mining was important in giving the group street cred.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout Amanda, we wouldn\u2019t have had the legitimacy to sell that this is a legitimate business,\u201d Hoyos-L\u00f3pez said. \u201cShe is the mining queen. She\u2019s got all the miners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoyos-L\u00f3pez added that many miners are former Wall Street executives.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to be taken seriously, you have to take serious people,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it doesn\u2019t get any more serious than miners.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump campaign didn\u2019t respond to multiple inquiries about Trump\u2019s latest crypto fundraising stats, his changed views on bitcoin and the events leading up to his appearance in Nashville.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies are created by miners around the world running high-powered computers that collectively validate transactions and simultaneously create new tokens. Their massive physical presence shows up in the form of sprawling data centers across the globe and offers a tangible image for newbies to understand an otherwise abstract technology.<\/p>\n
Fabiano described it as a natural fit \u201cwhen thinking about how to explain bitcoin to Trump in a way that makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bitcoin often gets a bad rap for the amount of energy it consumes, which is just shy of\u00a0how much power Egypt\u00a0uses annually. But as mining requires tremendous amounts of energy, the industry is developing innovative methods of producing and sharing it.<\/p>\n
Miners can partner with utilities in a way that allows them to return energy to the grid when there\u2019s excessive demand. They\u2019re also utilizing untapped sources of renewable energy, often concentrated in remote parts of the country, helping to create an economy in areas that would otherwise be dormant. That could all lead to the U.S. becoming a greater producer of energy, which is of particular importance to satisfy the needs of the artificial intelligence boom.<\/p>\n
Bailey confirmed that he flew to New York to meet with Trump, but he wouldn\u2019t share specifics about what was said in the meeting. What\u2019s clear is that, soon thereafter, Trump agreed to host about a dozen crypto executives and experts for a 90-minute roundtable in a small tea room at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.<\/p>\n
That meeting took place in mid-June, two weeks after the dinner at Bottles.<\/p>\n
To get Trump on board with the big shindig in Nashville, Bailey, Fabiano and Hoyos-L\u00f3pez knew they needed the right mix of people to clearly explain the virtues of mining and to convince the nominee that donations would be large enough to make the event worth his time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like, \u2018Who would we put in the room? Who would be the best people to explain this, right? Who would be willing to put dollars up, kind of put their skin in the game?\u2019 And that was how it all got started,\u201d Fabiano said.<\/p>\n
Those who committed to going pitched in $500,000 apiece to a fundraising committee, according to multiple attendees.<\/p>\n
Fabiano, who had never previously been involved in politics or campaigning, said the biggest concern among prospective attendees was the fear of appearing partisan. She said ahead of the meeting there was \u201ca prep call for agenda items.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fabiano put together a presentation for the Trump team with background material on the miners who would be at the Mar-a-Lago roundtable to show that, \u201cWe are real people, and we are real businesses, and you should take us seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
With thunderstorms bearing down on the Atlantic coast, the Mar-a-Lago attendees, including representatives from\u00a0Riot Platforms,\u00a0Marathon Digital Holdings,\u00a0TeraWulf\u00a0and\u00a0Core Scientific, forfeited their smartphones to a radio-frequency identification pouch that blocked incoming and outgoing signals. From under a large chandelier, they listened to the former president engage on the nuances of America\u2019s energy deficit, bitcoin mining, AI, and competition with China.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat roundtable really set off like, \u2018OK, this industry is real, and they\u2019re showing up with dollars, and they\u2019re showing up with like, actual smart things to say and agenda items that are important to America,\u2019\u201d said Fabiano.<\/p>\n
After years of facing political backlash, Fabiano said she was glad Trump took an active interest in \u201cdigging in and learning about why this industry is real\u201d and \u201cwhy we\u2019re not a bunch of criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fabiano and crew knew they weren\u2019t starting from scratch with Trump.<\/p>\n
Bailey started talks with the Trump camp in March.\u00a0<\/strong>In April, Trump launched his latest nonfungible token collection on the\u00a0Solana\u00a0blockchain.\u00a0In May, he became the first major presidential nominee to accept cryptocurrency donations. He\u2019d started talking on the campaign trail about defending so-called self-custody of coins and vowed at the Libertarian National Convention in May to keep\u00a0Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and \u201cher goons\u201d away from bitcoin holders.<\/p>\n In early June in San Francisco, technologists, crypto executives and venture capitalists\u00a0paid up to $300,000 per ticket\u00a0to join a Trump fundraiser that ultimately\u00a0raised more than $12 million. The more Trump raised, the more he leaned into his newfound support.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of people in Trump\u2019s orbit that are fans of bitcoin,\u201d said Bailey. \u201cThere are members of his family that are fans of bitcoin. Donald Trump has sold real estate for bitcoin. I just bought a pair of sneakers from him in bitcoin.\u201d<\/p>\n Bailey said Trump\u2019s journey from cynic to fan is relatable. He said\u00a0Michael Saylor, the billionaire founder of\u00a0MicroStrategy, was once a skeptic and that he\u2019s been on a personal journey himself for 12 years.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no necessarily single person who\u2019s responsible for orange-pilling him,\u201d Bailey said, of Trump. \u201cI think in terms of him having a 180 on this topic, that is really a very natural thing.\u201d<\/p>\n After months of dialogue with Trump and his aides, Bailey said he thinks the former president\u2019s attraction to bitcoin is that it \u201crepresents a transformational opportunity for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn that sense, I think it\u2019s kind of a match made in heaven,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Hoyos-L\u00f3pez said the period between the Mar-a-Lago meeting in June and the Nashville conference late last month was \u201cagonizing,\u201d as the group waited for an answer.<\/p>\n The first \u201cyes\u201d from the Trump camp was to the meeting in Manhattan, and the news was delivered by phone to Hoyos-L\u00f3pez while Bailey was in Japan. The conference was more than a month out. Hoyos-L\u00f3pez said she jumped in her car and drove to Bailey\u2019s house so she and his wife, Emily, could prepare the one suit he had in his closet.<\/p>\n \u201cWe couldn\u2019t find any dry cleaners that would have this in time in Puerto Rico,\u201d Hoyos-L\u00f3pez said. \u201cWe ended up having to get super creative, like putting his suit in the dryer, putting his suit in the sun, steaming it.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a lot of work to be done in a little amount of time.<\/p>\n Soon after the Mar-a-Lago roundtable, Trump said yes to Nashville.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a criminal attorney, I was a prosecutor, so I\u2019m used to dealing with very big and very emotional moments, but not treating them as such,\u201d Hoyos-L\u00f3pez said. \u201cWhile everyone is excited and celebrating, I\u2019m like, \u2018Alright, well, we need to sit down and figure out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Three months earlier, Bailey\u2019s wildest dream was to get Trump to Nashville. He talked about it often with his core group of friends in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory with crypto-friendly policies, including huge tax breaks to those who spend at least 183 days on the island each year.<\/p>\n \u201cNever in a million years, did we think we were going to be here,\u201d Hoyos-L\u00f3pez said. \u201cGetting a presidential candidate to the Bitcoin Conference was definitely one of the coolest things that I probably will ever do in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n At the conference, Hoyos-L\u00f3pez, Fabiano and Bailey worked to stage a second roundtable with Trump. They brought in a wider set of industry participants, including the Winklevoss twins,\u00a0Coinbase\u00a0Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick. Kid Rock, Billy Ray Cyrus and some top mining executives were also there, along with a smattering of politicians.<\/p>\n Trump, in his keynote, donned a blue-and-white-striped tie and an American flag pinned to the lapel of his navy blue suit. He declared that a Trump White House would \u201ckeep 100% of all the bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds or acquires into the future,\u201d and said he would fire SEC Chair Gensler.<\/p>\n To Fabiano, Bailey, and Hoyos-L\u00f3pez, the stakes couldn\u2019t possibly be higher, as Democratic nominee\u00a0Kamala Harris\u00a0gains momentum in the polls.<\/p>\n \u201cOur industry as a whole will cease to exist if Trump doesn\u2019t win,\u201d Hoyos-L\u00f3pez said. \u201cThere are some rumors out there that Harris is trying to change her stance on crypto as a whole, and to appear more friendly, but I just don\u2019t believe anything that they say.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoyos-L\u00f3pez said she\u2019s now focused on getting out votes and rallying bitcoiners who she says are \u201csingle-issue voters.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, the money that you get in is very important,\u201d she said. \u201cBut what really matters at the end of the day is votes.\u201d<\/p>\n Less than a week after leaving Nashville, Fabiano, Hoyos-L\u00f3pez and Bailey were back together closer to home to process all that had happened. They met at a restaurant called Santaella and shared a mix of Puerto Rican tapas, including a personal favorite \u2014 goat cheese quesadilla with nuts and honey on top.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just sat down and had a conversation about like, \u2018Holy crap. We did this,\u2019\u201d Hoyos-Lopez said. \u201cWe created the table, and we brought everyone to the table, which is literally what this community is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2014 A block away from the neon-lit buzz of Lower Broadway, where honky-tonk pours onto the city\u2019s main drag at all hours, stands the Music City Center, a venue that\u2019s hosted everything from\u00a0craft beer conferences\u00a0to a performance by the\u00a0legendary Dolly Parton. In late July, the complex filled up for something entirely different. 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