Once Captured Attention of Millions of Young People to Bitcoin, Trump Ally Charlie Kirk Assassinated

Original Article Title: "Charlie Kirk Assassinated, America Loses Its Best Bitcoin Advocate to Young People"

Original Article Author: David, Deep Tide TechFlow

On September 10, a bullet ended the life of one of America's most influential Bitcoin evangelists.

31-year-old Charlie Kirk may not have been the most well-known name in the crypto community; he was not a developer, not an exchange founder, nor a crypto fund manager.

But he may have been the most effective person in spreading the idea of Bitcoin to America's young people.

As the founder of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, which holds influence on thousands of campuses, Kirk brought the concept of "Bitcoin is sound money" to millions of college students who had never encountered cryptocurrency.

"Every student should at least understand how Bitcoin works," Kirk said in a campus speech in 2024, "If you don't, be prepared to be ruled by those who do."

On the afternoon he fell, at the University of Utah, he was answering students' questions about America's mass shooting problem. Ironically, a few minutes later, he himself became the latest victim of this issue.

After the incident, many lamented that Kirk was one of the few mainstream voices who truly understood Bitcoin. This is a significant loss for the crypto evangelism.

Bitcoin Evangelist

Why could Charlie Kirk get millions of young people interested in Bitcoin?

In 2012, at only 18 years old, Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA with Bill Montgomery, an organization dedicated to promoting conservative ideas on campus. After more than a decade of development, according to the organization's website, TPUSA has established branches on over 3,000 high school and college campuses nationwide, with over 650,000 lifetime student members.

Kirk's flagship event was the "Prove Me Wrong" campus debates, inviting students with opposing views to challenge him face-to-face.

Originally, these debates focused on traditional political issues—free speech, gun rights, immigration policy. But by the 2024 election cycle, a new theme frequently appeared in Kirk's arguments: Bitcoin.

Kirk's brilliance lies in not promoting Bitcoin as an investment or technology, but integrating it into his existing political narrative framework.

“Cryptocurrency and Christians are two threats to the New World Order,” Kirk stated on his radio show. In his context, the “New World Order” represents the globalist control he opposes, and being a “threat” signifies defending freedom.

“You can have a currency that is not controlled by the federal government, which is a direct competition to the U.S. Treasury, and it should be.” This way of expression immediately resonates with his audience, understanding that this is not a discussion about blockchain technology but a showdown between personal freedom and government control.

In campus debates, when students inquire about inflation and the cost of living, Kirk seamlessly introduces Bitcoin:

“Your generation is facing the most severe currency devaluation in history. Bitcoin's 21 million coin limit means no one can arbitrarily print money to dilute your wealth.”

He uses economic pressures that students personally feel, such as student loans, housing prices, and inflation as entry points to make Bitcoin part of the solution.

During the 2024 election cycle, Kirk took this narrative to new heights.

According to TheStreet, “Kirk vigorously promoted policies supporting cryptocurrency at student events, often describing digital assets as an intergenerational hedge tool against inflation and regulation.”

The ability to transform technical issues into a defense of freedom allowed even liberal arts students uninterested in programming to start paying attention to Bitcoin.

Three Key Crypto Points

“Bitcoin is more trustworthy than the U.S. dollar.”

In Kirk's crypto discourse, one of the most impactful points also came from a segment on his radio show: “Bitcoin is in some ways more trustworthy than the U.S. dollar.”

According to Media Matters' report, he elaborated: “From being able to know how much Bitcoin exists, to the ledger, to blockchain technology.”

This viewpoint cleverly sidesteps technical details, appealing directly to moral judgment. Kirk contrasts Bitcoin's fixed supply of 21 million coins with the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing policy, enabling young people to understand this is not just a technological difference but an issue of trustworthiness.

「If you don't understand, get ready to be ruled by those who understand」.

During the 2024 election cycle, Kirk positioned cryptocurrency as the economic weapon of the younger generation. He often described digital assets as an intergenerational hedge tool against inflation and regulation.

In his narrative framework, the traditional financial system was depicted as a game disadvantageous to young people, while Bitcoin represented a brand-new opportunity.

This led to the highly viral opening sentence of the article, "If you don't understand, get ready to be ruled by those who understand"; it elevated cryptocurrency to the level of an intergenerational wealth defense battle.

Kirk also connected this topic to a broader political struggle. He stated on air, "We have $35 trillion in debt. Whether you like it or not, cryptocurrency is happening, and Donald Trump is standing on the correct side of cryptocurrency."

He pointed out that politicians opposing cryptocurrency were "controlled by big banks," portraying this as a grassroots struggle against vested interests.

「Bitcoin Can Save the National Debt」.

Kirk's most radical and controversial viewpoint emerged in July 2025. According to a video interview posted on X platform by The Bitcoin Conference, Charlie Kirk said Bitcoin could pay off the national debt and cover deficit losses.

Although this view is economically contentious, it successfully elevated Bitcoin from a personal investment tool to the height of a national strategic asset.

This resonated with the idea proposed by the Trump administration at the time to establish a "national Bitcoin strategic reserve." Kirk also reported this policy proposal on his website, stating that Bitcoin's price surged after Trump announced the establishment of the strategic reserve.

The three core viewpoints above form the basis of Kirk's crypto evangelism:

Doubting the integrity of the dollar gave Bitcoin a moral superiority; advocating for intergenerational justice turned crypto into a weapon for young people; saving debt aligned with the spirit of the president.

From Campus to the White House

Kirk's close relationship with the Trump family is no secret. According to The New York Times, Kirk has a close relationship with Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., giving him a direct channel to influencing policy.

And in the cryptocurrency realm, this influence has had substantial outcomes.

On July 27, 2024, Trump delivered a historic speech at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville. Kirk retweeted this moment on his X account: "President Trump said at the 2024 Bitcoin conference that the U.S. will become the capital of cryptocurrency on Earth and the world's Bitcoin superpower."

This was not just a retweet—Kirk's organization, Turning Point Action, made cryptocurrency policy a key mobilization issue for young voters throughout the entire 2024 election cycle.

More importantly, Kirk helped popularize the concept of the "National Bitcoin Strategic Reserve."

In March 2025, when Trump officially announced this plan, Kirk wrote on his website, "After years of corrupt attacks by the Biden administration, the American crypto reserve will elevate this critical industry."

Prior to the 2024 election, Kirk conducted a campus tour lecture titled "You're Being Brainwashed." Public data shows that this tour visited approximately 25 college campuses and generated about 2 billion viral interactions on social media. Forbes reported that this tour was praised for playing a "key role" in helping Trump get elected.

Notably, Kirk even indirectly participated in personnel decisions within the Trump administration. According to Forbes, Kirk assisted the President-elect in selecting government leadership positions, including cabinet roles. While there is no direct evidence that he influenced appointments related to cryptocurrency, his overall influence cannot be ignored.

By incorporating Bitcoin into a broader conservative agenda, Kirk not only expanded the audience for cryptocurrency but also changed the political discourse surrounding it. This has been a double-edged sword, bringing mainstream attention and political support to cryptocurrency but also entangling it in America's increasingly polarized political environment.

Cryptocurrency Education: A Long and Winding Road

Kirk's death has left a void that is hard to fill.

His position was incredibly unique, not being a tech expert or a financial tycoon but a political activist with a vast youth network who genuinely believed in Bitcoin.

In 2016, he was the youngest speaker at the Republican National Convention, and in 2020, he was the opening speaker; according to Wikipedia, his podcast often ranked in the top ten on the Apple News charts.

This combination of mainstream political status, genuine belief in Bitcoin, and widespread influence is almost unparalleled on the American political spectrum.

Looking back at Kirk's success, it at least proves one thing: getting the mainstream to embrace Bitcoin requires not more technical whitepapers, but better storytellers.

In discussing the impact of gun violence, being shot at a gun violence event, Kirk may also be reminding everyone of one fact: in today's highly polarized American environment, becoming a public advocate comes with real risks. When technical issues get caught up in intense ideological battles, advocates may become targets.

Kirk is gone, but the questions he raised still linger: How can Bitcoin truly go mainstream?

This question, Kirk can no longer answer. But the question he posed with his life is worth contemplating for everyone who cares about the future of cryptocurrency.