Crypto’s pitch as a decentralized currency free of state control would naturally resonate with those skeptical of government. But when, exactly, did it become an object of partisan—that is, Republican—obsession?

One of the promises of cryptocurrency is that it doesn’t require banks or government agencies to act as intermediaries for transactions, so users don’t have to put their trust into large entities. The appeal to libertarians is obvious, then (even if, in reality, cryptocurrency and the broader “web3” ecosystem involves plenty of centralization). Sen. Rand Paul, one of the staunchest libertarians in Congress, was the first presidential candidate ever to accept Bitcoin campaign donations when he ran in 2015. He’s even suggested that cryptocurrency could one day replace the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

But it isn’t just the increased prominence of libertarianism in the mainstream GOP that’s pushed it to embrace crypto. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman posits that right-wing politicians, particularly those of the MAGA variety, have an affinity for cryptocurrency due to the heightened distrust of major institutions that former President Donald Trump sowed among his supporters. “Bitcoin was supposed to create a monetary system that functions without trust — and the modern right is all about fostering distrust,” he writes. (For what it’s worth, Trump has consistently denounced Bitcoin as a “scam” that’s “competing against the dollar,” although his wife Melania has released her own NFT.)