The gender divide in U.S. politics and this yr’s presidential election is well documented, but in accordance with one pollster, a cryptocurrency divide has also emerged that overlaps with the gender divide.
Dan Cassino, professor of presidency and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University and executive director of the FDU surveysaid the information showed that one in seven voters owned cryptocurrencies, and that these voters leaned toward Donald Trump, who has turn out to be a robust proponent of cryptocurrencies.
Crypto owners support Trump (50%) over Kamala Harris (38%) – for non-crypto owners, it’s almost the alternative, preferring Harris (53%) over Trump (41%). And men are greater than twice as more likely to own crypto as women.
“Crypto is an option for men who are looking for a way to achieve the role they believe society demands of them – to make money, provide for themselves, and be knowledgeable about finance and technology,” he wrote in a Washington Post evaluation on Friday. “While it is unlikely that the profits from these investments can be used to buy a large home in a good school district, crypto appears to offer these young men a path to wealth that the traditional routes of education, hard work and saving do not.”
To further explore the intersection between crypto, gender, and support for Trump, the FDU survey asked men how masculine they were and whether or not they agreed with a “traditional” image of masculinity that preaches, for instance, that men must be the boss.
Men who consider themselves “quintessentially masculine” are literally less more likely to own cryptocurrencies than other men, in accordance with the survey. More surprising, nonetheless, is the information on men who don’t consider themselves to be quintessentially masculine and consider in traditional masculinity.
“It’s these men – the men who fall into this masculinity trap – who, according to our survey, are buying cryptocurrencies and turning to Trump,” Cassino said.
About 1 / 4 of men are on this trap, and so they are predominantly younger and black and Latino, he added. Of that group, 37 percent own cryptocurrencies, in comparison with 18 percent of other men, and crypto owners overwhelmingly favor Trump.
“Just as crypto investing offers a way to meet the increasingly unrealistic demands of traditional masculinity, Trump is giving these men who own cryptocurrencies reasons why they are not living up to those demands,” Cassino explained, citing Trump’s hostility toward immigration, China and DEI policies.
“The fact that these proposals are unlikely to work is as irrelevant as whether these men will actually become Bitcoin millionaires,” he added. “Trump is offering a lifeline to men who are desperately seeking it.”
Cassino believes this dynamic reflects a deeper problem, namely expectations of what men must be versus latest economic and social realities. As long as this discrepancy exists, men will proceed to be lured by the “false hope of a path forward,” he warned.
Trump’s turn to cryptocurrencies comes after he previously dismissed Bitcoin as a “fraud.” Most recently, Trump bought a burger with Bitcoin on Wednesday. And on Monday, Trump and his sons unveiled a brand new crypto company called World Liberty Financial, by which they apparently don’t own any stake. after in accordance with Bloomberg.
At the Bitcoin 2024 conference in July, Trump promised to make the US the dominant nation within the cryptocurrency space, remove the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and create a national Bitcoin reserve.
“I promise the Bitcoin community that the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ anti-crypto crusade will be over. It will end. It will be over,” he said. “The moment I am sworn in, the persecution will stop and the weaponization against your industry will end.”
Crypto has also played a task in a few of Silicon Valley’s leading tech figures supporting Trump. The founders of enterprise capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced their support in July, citing his stance on crypto, amongst other things.
Trump’s campaign also accepts campaign donations in cryptocurrencies. In June, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss each announced $1 million in Bitcoin donations, however the campaign needed to return the cash since it exceeded the utmost amount allowed under federal law.