The Kennedy name has always been synonymous with “forward thinking” and changing times. In a world where money is going from paper bills to QR codes, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is upholding his end of the “Kennedy legacy” in true Kennedy fashion.
According to Fortune, in May, the Democratic Presidential candidate told a crowd of onlookers in Miami at the Bitcoin 2023 conference that he “will defend the right of self-custody of Bitcoin and other digital assets.”
After sharing his thoughts on the benefits of Bitcoin, Kennedy followed up with statements alluding to him being a “no-coiner”, a term used to describe a person that has no cryptocurrency holdings or investments. Kennedy stated that he was “not an investor” and that he wasn’t onstage “to give investment advice.” But in contrast to his statements is a financial disclosure filed June 30th, obtained by CNBC that says quite the opposite. According to CNBC’s findings, his family’s trust holds between $100,000 and $250,000 in the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
The amount of Bitcoin his family trust owns is pretty small in comparison to the assets he and his family hold, which include hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, real estate worth millions, and a portfolio of stocks, bonds, and money-market holdings.
The situation could represent a conflict of interest if Kennedy were touting bitcoin on the campaign trail while his immediate family held the cryptocurrency, according to Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel for watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
In Kennedy’s defense, hours after publication of the story, Kennedy’s campaign manager, former Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich, told CNBC that the bitcoin purchase was made after the speech in Miami and before the June 30 filing deadline. “There is no conflict here,” Kucinich told CNBC in a follow-up interview.
Kennedy’s now-known investment in Bitcoin comes after a thread of public statements backing the cryptocurrency.
In May, more than a couple of weeks after he officially began his campaign, he tweeted that the “FDIC and SEC have no authority to wage an extralegal war on crypto,” referring to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s insistence that a failed bank give up its crypto business, as well as a storm of litigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Shortly after, he appeared as a keynote speaker at the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami, where he made his first public appearance as a presidential candidate and said he wasn’t an investor in the digital asset.
Three days prior to filing his financial disclosure form on June 30th, in which he divulged his family’s investment in the digital asset, he continued his enthusiastic Bitcoin promotion. “Bitcoin is not only a bulwark against totalitarianism and the manipulation of our money supply,” he tweeted, “it points the way toward a future in which government institutions are more transparent and more democratic.”