A half dozen prominent Democrats reiterated their support for crypto at a virtual “town hall” Wednesday night, including Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, who said he wants to pass sweeping crypto legislation before the end of 2024.
Organised by industry supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ nominee in the upcoming presidential election, the town hall was a double overture of sorts.
First, it represented an olive branch to the crypto industry, which often laments it’s been persecuted under President Joe Biden’s administration.
The town hall was also an overture to Harris herself, who has not publicly expressed her views on crypto.
The 2024 election is turning out to be a nail biter. It’s unclear how many people will vote based on the candidates’ stance toward crypto.
But US presidential elections are often decided by the slimmest of margins, and candidates are loath to scorn an entire voting bloc, however small.
Aware of the stakes, the crypto industry has put its thumb on the scales by pouring $183 million into political action committees to back crypto-friendly candidates.
Biden’s perceived antagonistic stance towards crypto depressed the chances of the Democrats recapturing the White House, some feared.
His withdrawal from the race last month has created an opportunity for Democrats to recapture the momentum, industry leaders say.
Crypto4Harris
The industry has kept a close eye on Harris campaign, looking for signs Harris will adopt a friendlier stance toward the technology should she win in November.
“I’m a proud Democrat, but like many people here tonight, I share the frustration of the last several years,” Snickerdoodle Labs CEO Jonathan Padilla, one of the Crypto4Harris organisers, said.
“Everyone organising this call and speaking here tonight believes we are here because of the opportunity for a reset.”
Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a longtime proponent of blockchain technology, struck an optimistic note.
“The exciting thing about Kamala Harris is [she], of course, comes from California — hotbed of innovation, close to Silicon Valley,” he said.
“She’s somebody who will listen, right?”
Trump’s crypto courtship
The Securities and Exchange Commission and other US regulators — all led by Biden appointees — have brought the hammer down on crypto since the $8 billion collapse of FTX in November 2022.
They have pushed banks to ditch clients that traffic in digital assets and taken crypto heavyweights to court, accusing them of offering unregistered securities.
Lawmakers are no exception. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren infamously rallied some 100 lawmakers in 2023 to fight “crypto-financed terrorism.”
This year, the industry found an unlikely saviour in former President Donald Trump, who is seeking reelection.
Once a crypto-sceptic, Trump has aggressively courted the industry in 2024.
“From now on, the rules will be written by people who love your industry, not hate your industry,” he said at a Bitcoin conference in July.
The gambit is working: several crypto executives, including the Winklevoss twins and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, have thrown their weight behind Trump.
The Harris ‘reset’
Harris is seeking a “reset” with the crypto industry, the Financial Times reported. The Crypto4Harris campaign said it wanted to help this push.
Some in the industry are sceptical, however.
“Harris appears to be Warren 2.0,” crypto investor and influencer Nic Carter wrote on X, citing news that Harris sought advice from longtime Warren aide Bharat Ramamurti.
Wednesday’s speakers tried to push back against the notion that Trump was the pro-crypto candidate.
“Let me tell you, there’s only one candidate running for president who’s called crypto a scam, and that’s Donald Trump,” Representative Wiley Nickel, a Democrat from North Carolina, said.
“He did absolutely nothing for four years as president, and was openly hostile up until just recently.”
Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban, an outspoken Harris supporter, agreed.
“Crypto is not about the elite. It’s about egalitarianism,” he said. “And the Republicans couldn’t care less. They just want to see the Bitcoin maxis get richer.”
The ‘North Star’
But the most notable comments came from Schumer, one of the most powerful Democrats in the country.
“We all believe in the future of crypto,” he said. “My goal is to get something passed out of the Senate and into law by the end of the year.”
If the US doesn’t, it risks pushing the industry “overseas, to lowest-common-denominator countries, where there’ll be no regulation at all.”
He pointed to two initiatives as models for future crypto legislation: the Chips and Science Act, which has spurred a boom in domestic semiconductor manufacturing, and the government’s work on artificial intelligence.
“Innovation is our North Star when it comes to AI or crypto, but we also need to provide some guardrails to keep users of this technology safe, to preserve our national security, and to ensure that this tech can’t be abused by criminal organisations or other nefarious actors,” he said.
Schumer provided few details, but he seemed to imply the Senate should consider some version of a bill being crafted by members of the Senate’s agriculture committee.
Despite its lineup of prominent lawmakers, the event was just as notable for the people it didn’t include.
There were no founders of major crypto businesses or protocols, a sign they haven’t been convinced by Democrat’s overtures.
“We need a Kamala pivot and for her to embrace and regulate it,” Representative Darren Soto, a Democrat from Florida, said.
“And I have absolute faith we’re going to see some great policy and statements coming out of her campaign.”
Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. You can contact him at aleks@dlnews.com.