Author: Olga Kharif, Bloomberg; Translated by: Tao Zhu, Golden Finance
The cryptocurrency industry has been hoping for a “reset” with the White House ever since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate. In other words, there are signs that Harris will have a friendlier view on cryptocurrency than President Joe Biden.
Yet the exact contours of her potential attitude toward the industry are likely to remain a mystery for some time, keeping cryptocurrency insiders on edge.
It’s no secret that the industry has been on the defensive under the Biden administration. Agencies like the SEC have been relentlessly going after cryptocurrency businesses, suing exchanges Coinbase Global Inc., Binance and Kraken, among others. Biden vetoed a bill to repeal rules that would have made it easier to offer cryptocurrency custody. Would a Harris administration be different?
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Democratic National Convention on August 22. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
There are signs Harris may take a different tack. A newly formed grassroots group, Crypto4Harris, held a meeting recently. It was attended by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has expressed a desire to pass legislation on digital assets as soon as possible. Many cryptocurrency executives have spoken with the Harris campaign, saying it has shown a willingness to listen to industry concerns — something they had not seen from the Biden administration before this summer.
Still, despite the industry’s thirst for details, Harris’ exact stance on crypto remains a blank slate. The best the industry has gotten so far came during the Democratic National Convention, when Harris’ campaign advisers said the party’s candidate would support measures to help develop digital assets.
“I would be surprised if the Harris campaign rolled out a detailed crypto platform before the election,” said Hilary Allen, a law professor at American University’s Washington College of Law. “Despite the huge amounts of money the crypto industry has poured into the election, crypto is simply not a salient issue for most voters. Harris has a lot of more mainstream issues to focus on — inflation, conflict in the Middle East, you name it. Large numbers of people care about these issues.”
While crypto voters may be vocal, their ranks remain small. According to a Federal Reserve survey last year, only about 7% of U.S. adults held or used cryptocurrencies in 2023, down 3 percentage points from 2022 and 5 percentage points from 2021. The number of people paying attention to cryptocurrencies may have increased since the launch of spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds, but those who invest in these funds may know little about or care little about the regulatory challenges of cryptocurrencies.
There is no mention of cryptocurrency in the official 92-page Democratic platform released last week. (Cryptocurrency takes up a paragraph on the Republican agenda.) Harris did not mention cryptocurrency in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last Thursday.
More than anything, trying to decipher the Harris administration’s approach to cryptocurrency is a frustrating endeavor for one simple reason: the teacup remains empty.
