Former President Trump likes cryptocurrency now — a lot, which is a surprise to anyone who has been following the industry's political fortunes.

Why it matters: The cryptocurrency industry, which may not have that many people but definitely has a lot of money, has never been more politically organized as the U.S. heads into a presidential election.

• This contrasts with the administration of President Biden, which has been seen as primarily hostile to cryptocurrency.
• However, at the congressional level, there's been a sudden thawing of frosty opinions on crypto. Leaders on both sides of the aisle appear to be following Trump's lead in wooing the industry.

The latest: "Our country must be the leader in the field. There is no second place," Trump wrote on Truth Social this week.

• The former president invited holders of his NFT series to his home in Florida, at Mar-a-Lago, where he committed to end the regulatory hostility to the industry if re-elected.

By the numbers: In filings last year, Trump disclosed a million dollars in holdings of ether, with a few million more dollars in cryptocurrency income.

• Arkham Intelligence, which attempts to link digital addresses to people, said that a wallet it believed to be Trump's now holds assets worth more than $10 million.
• The most valuable asset in that wallet is holdings of the Trump (MAGA) token, which is up almost 50X this year.

Flashback: In July 2019, then-President Trump tweeted that he was no fan of bitcoin. He said the dollar was the only real currency in the USA.

• It went further than that. Late in his presidency, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposed a regulation that would have required financial firms to collect the identity of any cryptocurrency wallet a user sent funds to (in government parlance, an unhosted wallet).

At the time, then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said: "As the president has said, Bitcoin is highly volatile and based on thin air. We are concerned about the speculative nature."

• The initiative went nowhere.

What we're watching: Whether or not the crypto community donates a lot of its coins to the Trump campaign, now that he is accepting such contributions.

• And how many other campaigns will open up to cryptocurrency donations.

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Trump's fortunes are rising dramatically, on the Ethereum blockchain.

Zoom in: The meme coin made in honor of the 45th president is up over 17 thousand percent this year, executing an enormous surge through May.

In the weeds: The meme coin, Trump (MAGA), was created in August 2023, and it has no affiliation with the man himself.

• The group behind it donates to support veterans and the rescue of children.
• The website shows donations to several organizations, claiming to have given over 436.5 ETH ($1.6 million) in charitable contributions. It's been making its donations through Every.org, which shows each one.
• Every sale or transfer of MAGA has a 1% tax, to fund its promotion.

By the numbers: The total supply is 47 million, and it's held in 23,445 Ethereum accounts.

• Trump was the 45th president, but, if he wins in November, he will also be the 47th.

It is hard to imagine bitcoin price doesn't take a tumble if the Mt. Gox estate really starts distributing part of its $9 billion mountain of BTC over the next month.

Why it matters: The Mt. Gox collapse is one of the oldest unpaid bills in cryptocurrency.

Catch up fast: The Japan-based bitcoin exchange was once the largest spot in the world for bitcoin trading, but it shut down in 2014 after sundry catastrophes.

• When the digital smoke cleared, it still had about 15% of its customers' bitcoins. After a process that has unwound over the course of a decade, users of the exchange, digital asset investment firm Galaxy believes, look likely to get repaid before July.

That means most of the $9 billion worth of bitcoin that has been sitting idle for a very long time will hit the market, and there's just no way that doesn't have some impact on price.

The other side: In a note shared with Axios, Galaxy's research chief Alex Thorn said that his conversations with major Mt. Gox creditors have led him to believe that the market is more worried about massive sales of bitcoin than it should be.

• "Our impression is that this cohort is mostly long-term Bitcoiners, even more ideologically pro-Bitcoin than the broader Bitcoin holder base today," Thorn wrote.

How it works: Those owed bitcoin by Mt. Gox will need to have accounts on Kraken, BitGo or Bitstamp.

• The estate will send BTC to each of those organizations and they will distribute them to their users.
• Not all of the bitcoin will be distributed. Only those who opted for an "early" distribution, with a small haircut.

Galaxy estimates that 65,000 BTC (of the 141,000 held by the estate) will be distributed soon.

The big picture: FTX customers are getting cash, not crypto — and much less cash than crypto holdings would be worth now.

• Mt. Gox customers are getting bitcoin, but way less than they once held. Yet, it's been so long that whatever they get will be worth wildly more than whatever they had then.

Reality check: Mt. Gox distributions represent a metric ton of bitcoin, and some are going to sell at least a bit of it.

• Plus, the market will know that this BTC is no longer under lock and key.

Fun fact: A few years after Mt. Gox crashed, bitcoin cash (BCH) was created (it's a long story).

• Every single holder of BTC got an equal amount of BCH on that day. So the Mt. Gox estate also has 141,000 BCH, worth approximately $66 million today.
• Mt. Gox creditors will also get their shares of BCH.

💭 Our thought bubble: These folks may be long-term bitcoiners, but they are going to dump that BCH immediately.

🔹 BlackRock amended its S-1 for an ether ETF. (CoinDesk)

💳 Gnosis Pay gets access to Visa throughout Europe. (The Defiant)

🏦 Singapore's largest crypto bank, DBS, might have a lot of ether. (CoinDesk)

🏧 Astaria, a lending platform, has finally opened. (X)

"The fact that you've seen $58 billion or so come to the [bitcoin] ETFs has been a strong sign that the market is looking for regulation in traditional structures."