Reported by Cointelegraph: Kamala Harris has spoken publicly about crypto for the first time, pledging support for the industry while stressing consumer protections.
United States Vice President Kamala Harris made her first public statement about crypto during her US presidential election campaign. In comments made during a Wall Street fundraiser, Harris vowed to encourage investment in artificial intelligence and digital assets.
âWe will partner together to invest in Americaâs competitiveness, to invest in Americaâs future. We will encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets while protecting our consumers and investors,â Harris said at a fundraiser in Manhattan, Bloomberg reported on Sept. 22.
âWe will create a safe business environment with consistent and transparent rules of the road,â Harris said. âWe will invest in semiconductors, clean energy and other industries of the future, and we will cut needless bureaucracy.â
Itâs the first time Harris has publicly remarked about crypto since she became the Democratic Partyâs presidential frontrunner. Her Republican rival, Donald Trump, has also worked to secure support from the crypto industry.
The industry has been speculating whether Harris would take a different approach to crypto than President Joe Biden, who some have seen as unfriendly to the sector.
In August, Harrisâ senior campaign adviser, Brian Nelson, hinted she would support crypto policies if she wins the presidential election in November. However, she said the industry needs ârules of the road,â as some companies have collapsed.
âThis is an important and constructive statement from Kamala Harris,â Coinbase policy chief Faryar Shirzad said in a Sept. 22 X post.
âItâs not nearly as forward-leaning as the concrete and visionary positions taken by Donald Trump, but itâs still notable because she recognizes digital asset innovation as being important and on par with AI,â Shirzad added.
Alexander Grieve, vice president of government affairs at venture firm Paradigm, called Harrisâ remarks âencouragingâ on X, adding that regardless of who wins in November, âthis should be the last anti-crypto administration.â
âThis is progress and progress is good,â crypto venture firm Variantâs legal chief Jake Chervinsky wrote on X. âBut âwhile protecting our consumers and investorsâ could mean a lot of things.â
âThe anti-crypto army uses âconsumer protectionâ as a smoke screen to conceal their attempts to destroy our industry,â he claimed. âI, for one, want to see policy details.â
Crypto has become a campaign issue. US crypto companies, including Coinbase, Ripple and Gemini, have spent nearly $120 million to influence Novemberâs elections, the Public Citizen reported in August.
Trump has already released four non-fungible token collections, backed his familyâs crypto platform, and has closely embraced the crypto industry.
Heâs promised to be a âcrypto presidentâ and to sack US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, whose agency has launched multiple enforcement actions against the countryâs most prominent crypto players.
Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck in national polls, with Harris ahead of Trump by only 2.9 percentage points, according to Sept. 22 FiveThirtyEight data.