United States Vice President Kamala Harris made her first public statement about crypto during her presidential election campaign. In comments made at 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 stated at a fundraiser in Manhattan, as reported by Bloomberg on Sept. 22.
âWe will create a safe business environment with consistent and transparent rules of the road,â she added. âWe will invest in semiconductors, clean energy and other industries of the future, and we will cut needless bureaucracy.â
This is the first time Harris has publicly addressed crypto since becoming the Democratic Partyâs presidential frontrunner. Her Republican rival, Donald Trump, has also sought support from the crypto industry.
The industry has speculated whether Harris would adopt a different approach to crypto compared to President Joe Biden, who some perceive 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 emphasized that the industry needs ârules of the road,â citing the collapse of some companies.
âThis is an important and constructive statement from Kamala Harris,â Coinbase policy chief Faryar Shirzad noted in a Sept. 22 post on X.
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 he added.
Alexander Grieve, vice president of government affairs at venture firm Paradigm, called Harrisâ remarks âencouraging,â stating that regardless of the outcome 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 commented 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, with US crypto companies, including Coinbase, Ripple, and Gemini, spending nearly $120 million to influence the upcoming elections, as reported by Public Citizen in August.
Trump has released four non-fungible token collections, endorsed his familyâs crypto platform, and has closely embraced the crypto industry. Heâs promised to be a âcrypto presidentâ and to fire US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, whose agency has initiated multiple enforcement actions against major crypto players.
Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck in national polls, with Harris leading Trump by only 2.9 percentage points, according to Sept. 22 data from FiveThirtyEight.