08/04 update below. This post was originally published on August 3rd

Donald Trump, the former US president who is running in this year’s White House race on the Republican ticket, has surprised many with its embrace of bitcoin and crypto this year.

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Trump’s support for bitcoin — a complete reversal from 2019 when he railed against crypto — comes after he made millions from a series of crypto-based digital trading card collections and puts him along with Wall Street giants and Shark Tank billionaire Mark Cuban as crypto convert.

Now, after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted her fears about the future of the US dollarTrump has floated the prospect of using bitcoin to pay off America’s $35 trillion debt pile—which adds $1 trillion every 100 days and could fuel a bitcoin price boom.

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“Crypto is a very interesting thing,” Trump told Fox Business. “Maybe we pay off our $35 trillion, give them a little crypto check, right? We give them some bitcoin and wipe out our $35 trillion.”

Last week, Trump promised to create a “strategic national bitcoin reserve” and predicted that bitcoin could eclipse gold’s $16 trillion market cap during an appearance at the Bitcoin 2024 conference.

Update 08/04: An investment giant has warned that the US national debt could spiral in the coming years due to higher debt payments and the possibility of a US recession.

“There’s limited demand for available capital out there to finance government debt issuance, and the only way you’re going to attract demand for Treasuries is through higher interest rates,” Ryan Kimmel, a macro-asset analyst at $92 billion bond-focused DoubleLine , told Reuters. “Your interest costs go up, which requires higher taxes, which then shrinks economic growth, which again leads to further economic contraction … it’s a vicious cycle.”

While both Democratic Party candidates and Republicans have said they want to reduce deficit spending, the reality of belt-tightening is a tough pill to swallow.

“While politically challenging, exercising fiscal restraint remains a viable option,” Kimmel said. “A key question is, will policymakers act before America’s debt dynamics unravel into an unsustainable state for the economy?”

Trump’s new pro-crypto stance puts him sharply at odds with the anti-crypto stance of the Biden administration and Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump declared support for crypto in late May and began accepting campaign donations in bitcoin and a handful of other cryptocurrencies.

“If we don’t do it, China will,” Trump said Fox Business. “China will do it anyway. But if we don’t, China will. China is already doing it, and if we don’t, other countries will. So we might as well do it. at the forefront.”

China has cracked down on bitcoin and crypto in recent years, banning the trading and mining of crypto — a process in which powerful computers unlock new bitcoin by solving complex mathematical problems — but has also led the way in developing a crypto-inspired digital currency , sometimes called a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Last month, crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun predicted that China is ready to reverse bitcoin and crypto while crypto investor Brock Pierce said it’s only a matter of time before China reopens its digital doors to crypto.

“Biden is trying to shut it down … but if we don’t embrace it, other people will embrace it. You know, it’s a huge thing already … and if we don’t embrace it, other countries will embrace it in all case, but we might as well be the leader, Trump said.

Trump’s radical bitcoin plan comes after Tesla billionaire Elon Musk warned that the US dollar is headed for “destruction” and that the mounting debt pile of $35 trillion could “bankrupt” the US-something some analysts believe could push the bitcoin price higher.

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US debt interest payments are expected to reach $870 billion this year, according to a new report analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, after rampant inflation forced the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to an unprecedented clip in the aftermath of massive Covid-era spending and money printing.

Earlier this year, Bank of America analysts warned that the US debt load is on pace to add $1 trillion every 100 days.

“U.S. national debt rises by $1 trillion every 100 days,” Bank of America chief strategist Michael Hartnett wrote in a note to clients seen past CNBCadding that it’s “a little strange that deleveraging businesses (like gold and bitcoin) are approaching record highs.”