In mid-December, two jubilant groups came together to celebrate their recent, interconnected turns in fortune: the freewheeling cryptocurrency industry and the family of the victorious US President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump’s second son, Eric, was the star attraction at the Bitcoin Mena 2024 conference in Abu Dhabi on Dec 10. In front of a whooping crowd of industry figures, he assured them that his father would keep his promises to be “the most pro-crypto president” yet. Indeed, he drew a link between the two movements as victims of the same establishment.

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