By Francesca Hangeior.

Donald Trump, once a cryptocurrency sceptic, has vowed to be a “pro-bitcoin president” if elected in November.

The Republican nominee is seeking support from an industry frustrated by US regulations.

“The Biden-Harris administration’s repression of crypto and bitcoin is wrong, and it’s very bad for our country,” Trump said to cheers at a conference in Tennessee.

The ex-president likened cryptocurrencies to the growth of the “steel industry of 100 years ago”, and said, “Bitcoin stands for freedom, sovereignty and independence from government coercion and control.”

Trump said if he was in the White House, he would not allow the US government to sell its bitcoin holdings.

“This will serve in effect as the core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile,” Trump said.

The proposal was more limited than one offered the day before by longshot third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said he would seek to build a stockpile of 4 million bitcoins.

“If we don’t embrace crypto and bitcoin technology, China will, other countries will, they’ll dominate, and we cannot let China dominate,” Trump said Saturday.

“If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA.”

Acknowledging the price of electricity as a key factor in where cryptocurrency mining operations are located, Trump vowed to make US energy the cheapest “of any nation on Earth” by increasing fossil fuel production and nuclear energy.

“We’ll be doing it in an environmentally friendly way, but we will be creating so much electricity that you’ll be saying, ‘please, please, Mr President, we don’t want any more electricity.’”

He said on his first day in office, he would fire Gary Gensler, the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a frequent target of cryptocurrency industry outrage over his cautiously slow approach to implementing regulations.

The crowd roared with approval at the proposal, prompting Trump to joke: “I didn’t know he was that unpopular.”

“Let me say it again. On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler!” he said, with the crowd erupting again.

He also targeted Vice President Kamala Harris, who is set to replace Biden atop the Democratic ticket following the 81-year-old president’s shock exit from the campaign.

“We have to fight and we have to win, and I pledge to the bitcoin community that the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris’s anti-crypto crusade will be over, it will end, it’ll be done,” Trump told the crowd.

“You’re going to be very happy with me.”

The 100-day sprint to the US election began Sunday, the final act of a campaign transformed by an assassination attempt and the stunning exit of President Joe Biden.

After weeks of infighting and despondency over Biden’s candidacy, Democrats have consolidated behind Vice President Kamala Harris, radically reshaping the race to November 5 which was fast becoming Republican nominee Donald Trump’s to lose.

Harris’s candidacy has clearly reinvigorated her party’s campaign, which said Sunday it had raised $200 million – mostly from first-time donors – since Biden dropped out and endorsed his vice president a week ago.

A new Wall Street Journal poll showed Harris had closed Biden’s six-point deficit with Trump to just two points – well within the margin of error – with boosted support from Black, Latino and young voters.

But Republican pollster David Lee, who conducted the Journal survey, cautioned Democrats not to get carried away by the race tightening.

“Donald Trump is in a far better position in this election when compared to a similar time in the 2020 election,” Lee said.

If the race is at a dead heat nationally, the advantage still lies with Trump given the mathematics of the Electoral College system for electing the president.

Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton came despite losing the nationwide popular vote by nearly three million ballots.