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Vivek Ramaswami becomes the second US presidential candidate to officially accept bitcoin (BTC) donations for the upcoming 2024 elections.
“Give me $1,” Ramaswamy said as he announced that he was accepting bitcoin donations. The discovery comes just two days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became the first presidential candidate in United States history to accept campaign donations in bitcoin. Ramaswamy stated, “Let’s make the 2024 election a referendum on fiat currency.”
As shown above, Ramaswami showed a QR code on stage that, when scanned, redirected users to a payment gateway offering various payment methods for donations, including BTC and Satoshi (sats), the smallest denomination of Bitcoin.
Ramaswami chose the BitPay payment service to receive bitcoin donations. However, BitPay supports other cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), ApeCoin (APE), Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) among others.
Just announced we’re officially accepting #Bitcoin donations.
Give $1.
Let’s make the 2024 election a referendum on fiat currency. https://t.co/KrHJdomtCh pic.twitter.com/OkVmoBmTFz— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 20, 2023
Eligible U.S. citizens and permanent residents can donate up to $6,600 to the campaign, which are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Donors will be rewarded with a non-fungible token (NFT) as the donation page mentions: “After donating, come back to claim your NFT.”
Related: FTX aims to return political donations by end of February
In February, lawmakers in the Kansas House of Representatives introduced a bill proposing a $100 cap when it comes to cryptocurrency political donations.
For donations of less than $100, the recipient will be required to “immediately convert” the crypto to USD, not spending crypto, and not HODL the funds.