Written by: Huo Huo

On July 13, Trump raised his fist during the shooting and shouted "Fight" to become the "chosen one" and became popular around the world. Later, Trump announced at the Republican National Convention that he would nominate crypto innovation supporter James David Vance (J.D. Vance) as his vice presidential candidate for the 2024 presidential election, which caused an uproar. This is very attractive to crypto asset holders, and this group accounts for a large proportion. A new poll released by Grayscale at the end of May showed that about 47% of American voters expect to include cryptocurrencies as part of their investment portfolio.

So, what is Vance's connection with encryption? And what made Vance, who is only 40 years old, be chosen by Trump?

Vance — Crypto-friendly player

According to The Washington Post, a study published in April by the Pew Research Center concluded that 17% of American adults have purchased cryptocurrencies, and most of them (equivalent to about 40 million people) still own cryptocurrencies. This is a huge population structure that will greatly affect people's voting results in 2024. Both are also the reasons why Trump and Biden have introduced crypto-friendly policies this year.

Cryptocurrency investors believe that if Vance is successfully elected as vice president, it will be of great significance to the promotion of cryptocurrency compared to the Biden administration's cautious and picky attitude towards the crypto industry and various regulatory suggestions. Therefore, the Trump campaign is now betting on Vance and is expected to win at least millions of crypto voters to vote for them.

So what is Vance’s connection with encryption?

1) Crypto stance

Vance has always been in favor of the crypto industry and has been critical of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) regulatory policies on crypto.

“The fundamental question for me is how do we build a competitive marketplace that’s conducive to innovation, conducive to competition, so that consumers have the right choices, and not just be obsessed with pricing power in the marketplace and ignore other things that are really important,” Vance, a Republican senator, said in March 2024 at RemedyFest, a conference hosted by startup incubator Y Combinator.

At the same time, Vance believes that large technology companies need to be constrained, and is worried about excessive regulation of blockchain technology. He believes that using blockchain technology to implement functions such as identity verification can effectively challenge social media giants such as Meta. He also reviewed the birth of US antitrust laws in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and said that many of the arguments made by advocates at the time are also applicable to modern times. "If we can't achieve identity verification, then it will be difficult for us to challenge the giants in this field." "People recognize that concentrated private power can be as dangerous as concentrated public power," he said at RemedyFest.

A few days before attending RemedyFest, Vance also posted on X that "it's time to break up Google," claiming that Google News has increasingly cited left-leaning sources in recent years and that "Google and Facebook are indeed interfering with our political process."

原文：It’s long overdue, but the time has come to break up Google. More than any other issue of election integrity, this is a matter of great importance. Monopoly control of information in our society rests in the hands of a tech company with an overtly political bent.

At RemedyFest, Vance took issue with SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s approach to cryptocurrencies, saying that current regulation is doing the exact opposite of what it should be doing:

“The SEC seems to ask this question when regulating cryptocurrency: ‘Is this a utility token? If it is a utility token, then they want to ban it. If it is a token with no utility, they don’t seem to care.” Vance believes that utility tokens can be regulated but should not be banned.

When Canada froze the bank accounts of those protesting Covid-19 restrictions in 2022, Vance tweeted: “This is why crypto is on the rise. If you don’t have the right politics, the regime will cut off your access to banking services.”

In a 2022 televised debate, Vance argued that "the 2020 election was stolen from Trump," which led to Trump being banned from social media platforms such as X and Facebook.

Vance has also been an outspoken advocate for a lighter regulatory approach to cryptocurrencies, positions that are currently aligned with those of Trump.

2) Crypto assets

There is no doubt that Vance’s past pro-cryptocurrency remarks have helped Trump gain more credibility in the cryptocurrency space.

There is a saying in the Silicon Valley venture capital circle: "The best way to deeply understand a person is to analyze his venture capital portfolio." In 2021, Vance's estimated net worth was $5 million, including assets and income. Then in 2022, according to his latest financial disclosure, he held $100,000 to $250,000 in Bitcoin on Coinbase and invested about $15,000 in DEX Ethex. It can be said that Vance is the first US presidential candidate to own Bitcoin.

Coupled with the fact that Trump already has his own successful NFT digital art collection, venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar said in the post: "President Trump and Vice President Vance will form the first crypto government."

So apart from this, what else does Vance have that makes him win Trump's favor?

Vance and Trump's two-way run

Vance was born on August 2, 1984 in Ohio. He grew up in a poor family and served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was a writer and venture capitalist in his early years. In 2022, he was elected as a Republican U.S. Senator.

There are two reasons why Vance became popular in the first place:

One is that he wrote a best-selling book. In 2016, he became famous for publishing his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy", which tells his experience of growing up in a poor family: his parents were divorced, his mother was on painkillers and drugs for a long time, remarried several times, and he was raised by his grandparents.

This book not only exposes the plight of poor white rural Americans, but also examines the white working class in the United States from a sociological perspective. After its publication, the book became a bestseller and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for several weeks, gaining widespread acclaim and readers' attention. In 2020, the book was adapted into a movie of the same name and broadcast on Netflix, which further expanded his influence.

Second, he ran for the Senate. His main early career experience was venture capital for early-stage technology companies in Silicon Valley. He worked for venture capitalist Peter Thiel at the time, and Thiel played a key role in helping Trump get elected in 2016. Later, he helped Vance successfully run for the Senate in 2022; (Peter Thiel, billionaire, entrepreneur, venture capitalist and political activist, co-founder of PayPal, Facebook's first external investor, ranked 212th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of July 2024. During Vance's 2022 campaign for the Senate, Thiel donated more than $10 million.)

It happened to be 2016 that Trump, who had never been in politics, began running for president. However, during Trump's 2016 campaign, Vance strongly expressed his opposition to Trump, calling him "cultural heroin", "America's Hitler", and a demagogue who "led the white working class into a very dark place." He also said that he "will never support Trump."

He also wrote an op-ed in The New York Times in which he called the former president "unfit for our nation's highest office." In a since-deleted post, he called Trump "reprehensible" because "his policies on immigration and Muslims have frightened people I care about...

However, as time went on, he gradually adjusted his stance as he wanted to enter the political circle. He began to realize that the audience for his books, those voters who felt ignored and abandoned, were exactly Trump's core supporters.

Because Trump's political rise is largely based on his criticism and opposition to globalization, immigration policies and political elites, these views are popular in the Midwest and South of the United States. Vance's hometown of Ohio happens to be a key swing state in the Southwest, and Vance realizes that supporting Trump can help him gain greater influence and support politically. The state has a large number of working-class voters, especially the white working class in the Midwest and rural areas. His personal background and experience enable him to resonate with these voters, especially many of the issues he describes in "Hillbilly Elegy", such as globalization, outflow of manufacturing and economic insecurity, which are exactly the challenges faced by these voters.

Wanting to be a politician, as an Ohioan, Vance realized that he had to win the support of voters in his state to further his political career.

U.S. Senate Republican candidate J.D. Vance speaks to supporters in his hometown at the Butler County Republican Party headquarters in Middletown, Ohio, on October 19, 2022. Photo credit: Gaelen Morse

In 2017, Vance began to publicly express some approval of Trump's policies, particularly on the economy and immigration, stating that Trump had taken pragmatic steps to address the concerns of working-class voters.

In 2021, Vance announced his candidacy for Ohio State Senator and made it clear that he was a Trump supporter, and even actively sought Trump's endorsement during the campaign. In order to cater to the preferences and needs of Trump supporters, Trump was often mentioned in his campaign ads and promotional materials, and he positioned himself as the successor and defender of Trump's policies. He said that because he saw how former President Trump handled his work, supporting Trump was to better represent those voters who felt ignored by Washington, and he took back his 2016 remarks.

In 2022, Vance won a crowded Republican Senate primary with Trump's support. He also thanked Trump for his support and said he would continue to promote Trump's policies and become a solid and reliable voice supporting Trump in Congress.

By building connections with Trump supporters, it can be said that this is one of the important reasons why he was able to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Ohio in 2022. In addition, he was able to win more support from voters in Ohio, and he was also able to use this support to gain greater influence in national politics. This strategic alliance is of great significance to his political career in Ohio, and it also shows his keen insight and ability to respond to the needs of voters.

At the same time, after taking office in January 2023, Vance actively defended the former president on criminal and civil charges against Trump, and also had regular phone calls with Trump and had a close relationship with his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

Vance also hosted a fundraiser for the Trump Organization in San Francisco in June, hosted by tech investor David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya of the All-In podcast.

In addition, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan are the "swing states" mentioned in the Associated Press report. In response to the interview, Trump said that Vance could help him win Michigan and other Midwestern "swing states" and could perform well in the vice presidential candidate debate to attract the audience.

However, looking back at Vance's change of attitude towards Trump, this reversal is somewhat familiar. Just like Trump, who criticized Bitcoin at the beginning, eventually changed his attitude and issued an exclusive NFT, Vance did the same to Trump.

summary

Vance, who will turn 40 on August 2, is one of the youngest vice presidential candidates in history and the first millennial to run for a major party. As someone who grew up in poverty and turmoil, Vance's life has undergone a lot of transformation:

From a poor teenager to a lawyer, he married Usha Chilukuri Vance, a classmate he met at Yale Law School, in 2014 and has three lovely children. He is already a winner in life. Usha is of Indian descent and is also a lawyer. His Indian wife helped Trump's campaign team win minority votes.

He then went from being a lawyer to a venture capitalist and best-selling author, and as his influence grew, he entered the political circle. He then went from being a high-profile critic of Trump, to one of Trump's most staunch defenders, and now to his future deputy.

It can be said that Vance's personal experience is a model of the American dream and has inspired many people with similar backgrounds.

In his TED speech, Vance said: The American dream is not easy to achieve. He believes that having grown up in poverty, he can better understand the cruelty of the current survival game. The decentralized nature of encryption is undoubtedly the best challenge to the current monopoly giants. Regardless of Vance's impact on Trump's second term, it is undeniable that he may have more or less impact on the encryption industry in the future.

However, it is worth mentioning that Vance, like Trump, holds a tough stance on China and has complaints about China on a series of issues.