Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has come forward to clarify that he does, in fact, hold a sizeable quantity of Bitcoin, despite his earlier denial of having a Bitcoin investment during a conference in Miami which took place just barely two months ago.
While speaking to a crowd at the Miami Bitcoin conference held in May, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was asked if he was an investor in Bitcoin. The Democratic presidential candidate responded in the negative, saying he wasn’t going to give investment advice about the cryptocurrency, but he did add that he would be taking donations in BTC for his campaign.
“I am not an investor and I am not here to give investment advice,” he said at the conference.
Records Show Otherwise
Financial records have shown otherwise and revealed that RFK Jr probably lied about his Bitcoin investment. A financial disclosure form that Kennedy submitted on June 30 indicates a brokerage account that held between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of Bitcoin as of the date that the submission was made.
In the document, which does not specify when the transaction was made, it is stated that Kennedy’s family earned less than 201 dollars as a result of the purchase.
When the news of the investment first broke out, Kennedy’s campaign manager tried to clarify the details of the investment, saying that the BTC purchase was made during the time period between the speech in Miami and the June 30 filing deadline.
In a bit of a moment that looked like damage control, the investment was initially attributed to his wife. However, the campaign later said that they were mistaken and that the Bitcoin investment did indeed belong to Kennedy.
Support For Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency in the world, with investor interest steadily increasing. So it is not clear why Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made comments that are inconsistent with his investment in BTC, nor is it clear whether the investment was made before or after his presence at the Miami conference.
One reason is if Kennedy were to promote Bitcoin while on the campaign trail while his immediate family possessed the cryptocurrency, the situation may be considered a conflict of interest.
However, his campaign office, on the other hand, has denied any conflict. “There is no conflict here,” campaign manager Kucinich told CNBC.
Interestingly, the presidential candidate has been a vocal supporter of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in the past, saying, “Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin give the public an escape route” from a financial crisis. And his campaign is one of the few accepting donations in BTC.
While Kennedy’s Bitcoin-related remarks have become less frequent since Miami, Kennedy once said in an interview with TheStreet Crypto “I don’t want people on the SEC commission who are anti-crypto.” This is in contrast with the current administration, which has the SEC cracking down on crypto companies.
