Donald Trump's campaign says it will begin accepting contributions through cryptocurrency

Donald Trump 's presidential campaign said Tuesday it would begin accepting donations in cryptocurrency as part of an effort to build what it calls a “crypto army” leading up to Election Day.

The Trump campaign launched a fundraising page that allows “any federally permissible donor the ability to give" to its political committees using any crypto asset accepted through the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange.

The announcement promotes Trump's message that he is a crypto-friendly candidate, and also appeals to a core group of young male voters who are increasingly likely to dabble in digital assets. It came as Trump's defense rested in his hush money case in New York.

Cryptocurrencies are a digital asset that can be traded over the internet without relying on the global banking system.

Trump's campaign is accepting a range of popular cryptocurrencies that include Bitcoin, Ether and US Dollar Coin, and also include the low-value coins that tend to be popular with Internet personalities like Shiba Inu Coin, and Dogecoin.

Billionaire Elon Musk, most notably, is considered a fan of the latter two, traded on markets as DOGE and SHIB.

It’s not clear whether the Trump campaign will hold onto the crypto or will immediately sell it, and what sort of fees it may pay to liquidate. While the campaign says it plans to follow U.S. election laws, the anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies can make it tricky to confirm the funds are coming from who they say they are.

Trump has already received millions in cryptocurrency personally through his Trump Digital Trading Cards non-fungible token projects and his MAGA coin, which was released last August.

Julia Krieger, a spokeswoman for Coinbase, told The Associated Press that “crypto is