Former president Donald Trump has picked a running mate: Senator J.D. Vance from Ohio.
”J.D. has had a very successful career in technology and finance and now, during the campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Vance became a US senator for Ohio in 2023, defeating former US representative Tim Ryan.
The race drew the crypto industry’s attention because both politicians were openly pro-crypto, with Vance criticising crypto tax reporting requirements in President Biden’s infrastructure bill.
Vance also criticised the Canadian government’s decision to freeze the bank accounts of people associated with the 2022 trucker protests in Ottawa.
“This is why crypto is taking off,” he posted at the time. “The regime will cut off your access to banking if you have the wrong politics.”
As a senator, Vance has circulated draft legislation to overhaul the way the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulate crypto markets, according to Politico.
Senate financial disclosures also show that Vance owned between $250,000 and $100,000 in Bitcoin on Coinbase in 2022.
Trump’s decision to pick Vance as running mate comes two days after the former president survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Vance was competing for the position against North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, Florida senator Marco Rubio, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Traditionally crypto-agnostic, Trump has recently embraced the crypto industry — meeting with executives from Bitcoin mining firms, promising to pardon Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, and declaring he’ll speak at Bitcoin Nashville, the largest Bitcoin event of the year, in July.
Tom Carreras is a markets correspondent for DL News. Got a tip about Vance and Bitcoin? Reach out at tcarreras@dlnews.com