Original article: FOX Business; author Eleanor Terrett
Compiled by: Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina); Translated by: Azuma (@azuma_eth)
Editor's Note: At 11:45 a.m. EST on Thursday (23:45 last night Beijing time), Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna hosted a meeting on behalf of the Democratic Party to promote communication with the cryptocurrency industry and repair relations between the two sides. Obviously, the Harris team promoted this meeting at the current time point, and its fundamental purpose is to win more support from the cryptocurrency industry in the upcoming election. However, according to FOX Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, the discussion at last night's meeting was not smooth, and the two sides were on edge and the atmosphere was quite tense.
The following is the original text by Eleanor, translated by Odaily Planet Daily.
A Zoom meeting aimed at repairing relations between the Democratic Party and the cryptocurrency industry was held Thursday morning, but the atmosphere was tense. For the crypto-friendly wing of the party, it has not been easy to help Harris win the support of the cryptocurrency industry for her campaign.
The Zoom meeting was hosted by California Congressman Ro Khanna, and was aimed at communicating with the emerging industry that has been heavily regulated by the Biden administration (mainly its subordinate regulators such as the SEC and CFTC) and mending relations between the two sides during a critical window of the campaign. With Vice President Harris officially becoming the Democratic presidential candidate, the party is seeking to help Harris win back more votes from cryptocurrency voters from Republican opponent Trump, who has recently been actively courting the industry and vowed to make the United States the world's "crypto capital."
The meeting was attended by about twenty people, including government officials such as Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Lael Brainard, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Staff Bruce Reed, and Harris' senior adviser Kristine Lucius; cryptocurrency representatives included billionaire Mark Cuban, SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, investor Ron Conway, and some executives from companies such as Ripple, Coinbase, Kraken, and Uniswap.
However, the meeting did not seem to reach any formula, and most of the cryptocurrency representatives fiercely criticized White House officials for the regulatory offensive of institutions such as the SEC and the Federal Reserve. Participants told FOX Business that the meeting seemed to repeat the roundtable hosted by Ro Khanna in Washington, D.C. last month, when industry executives also complained to a senior White House official about the unfair treatment they had received under the Biden administration.
One attendee, who wished to remain anonymous, told FOX Business: “Multiple executives bluntly told the administration representatives that their crackdown on cryptocurrencies had caused tremendous damage to the industry and the Democratic Party’s relationship… They (the administration representatives) were basically being scolded.”
For example, Ron Conway, an early investor in Coinbase, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He expressed “vehement” dissatisfaction with the government’s empty promises to the industry.
In another tense moment, when Treasury Undersecretary Wally Adeyemo argued that banks and regulators were not actively trying to isolate the cryptocurrency industry from the broader financial system, an executive asked attendees to show their hands to see if their company or project had been denied service by a bank because of White House policy. Two attendees told us that nearly all industry representatives in attendance raised their hands.
Despite the friction, Anthony Scaramucci told FOX Business he was optimistic Harris could gain some support within the cryptocurrency industry.
Anthony Scaramucci noted, “It’s encouraging to see these senior officials take the time to be here and listen to our industry. My peers want things to change immediately, but that’s not how things work in Washington. I think we are making steady progress.”
Paul Grewal, chief legal officer at Coinbase, also had a positive view of the meeting: "This is still a conference hosted by the Biden administration, but the focus now must be on Harris' campaign and what she is willing to do. She is an ideal representative of the Democratic Party's break with the past and support cryptocurrency."
The market trend seems to be turning towards Harris. On the cryptocurrency-based prediction market Polymarket, Harris's chances of winning the election have now caught up with Trump, and even surpassed him at one point.
