Star Metro - Trump son hypes bitcoin on Hong Kong leg of Asia trip

US cryptocurrency investors were major supporters of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, contributing millions of dollars toward his victory in hopes of reversing the government's scepticism toward the sector under his Democrat predecessor Joe Biden.

The US House of Representatives passed three landmark cryptocurrency bills last month, with Trump, 79, making several other moves to bolster the sector.

These regulatory changes have caused the value of bitcoin to soar, with the digital currency hitting a new peak above $124,500 in mid-August before retreating.

Eric Trump, 41, told a Hong Kong conference hall packed with crypto afficionados that bitcoin is the "greatest asset in the world".

"There's no question in my mind that bitcoin hits a million dollars," he said at the Bitcoin Asia conference.

"The bitcoin community embraced my father unlike anything I had ever seen before, and I hope that's paid off in spades, because we love this community, we believe in this community," he added.

American Bitcoin, the bitcoin miner backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., is seeking acquisitions in Asia, the Financial Times reported this month.

"We're about to go public on the NASDAQ very soon, coming up," Eric Trump said on Friday.

Asked about US-China competition in digital assets, he said China was "a hell of a power" in the sector.

Eric Trump is set to attend a shareholder meeting of Japanese bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet on September 1, according to Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter.

The US president and his family have been involved in a number of crypto endeavours that have inflated his wealth as his administration lends support to the sector.

T.Murray--SMC