According to an announcement on Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be the first candidate for President of the United States in history to accept contributions and donations in Bitcoin.

Kennedy spoke about his own experience with the virtual currency, noting that allowing control of it could enable totalitarianism by governments across the world. In his speech he promised to protect the rights of users of Bitcoin, if he were elected.

Speaking at the Bitcoin 2023 conference, Kennedy said, “As president, I will make sure that your right to hold and use bitcoin is inviolable. I am an ardent defender and lifelong defender of civil liberties and Bitcoin is both an exercise and a guarantee of those freedoms.”

Kennedy had said earlier in the month that “crypto technologies are a major innovation engine,” as he noted that the US government is hobbling the industry and forcing “innovation elsewhere.”

In his speech at the conference, he promised “to show the world the power and the durability and the flexibility of Bitcoin.”

He said, “Almost everyone in this room is aware of the link between Bitcoin and democracy and freedom. They’re passionate because of the deep representation of a deep need that we have for liberty and democracy and the promise that this innovation has to guarantee those virtues.”

His speech came as the US is tightening the regulatory environment surrounding cryptocurrencies, which industry analysts note is causing uncertainty among participants, and further constraining an already battered industry.

Observers noted that Kennedy is likely to not only attract voters with his promises to protect Bitcoin, but he is also likely to attract millions in new campaign donations.

The nephew of the 35th President, John F. Kennedy, and the son of murdered Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is currently challenging the incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democrat nomination to become the Democratic Party candidate in the General Presidential Election of 2024.