As the US Presidential elections heat up, candidates are under more pressure than ever before to declare their stance on cryptocurrency. In the past, they could have gotten away with ignoring the crypto sector but this is no longer the case. Donald Trump in particular has worked hard this campaign season to secure the support of the crypto industry and seemed like the clear crypto candidate.
Now, Vice President Kamala Harris seems to be pursuing the same goal, though with a different approach. Recent reports and developments from the crypto sector might imply that she could very well win the crypto vote.
The Rising Stakes of Cryptocurrency
While it might be surprising that cryptocurrency is playing this much of a role in the elections, it has been a long time coming. The crypto industry is more financially viable than ever before, which means more voters have their money tied up in it. Bitcoin and Ether now have spot ETFs, which has created more avenues for investment on top of their record price movements in the last year. Then you have a growing interest in newer tokens.
Crypto entrepreneurs are eager to replicate the success of their predecessors and investors are happy to buy into this. As Alan Draper explains, upcoming crypto coins are seeing record investment levels, whether at presale or after launch. This much investment in the digital assets industry means that voters who care about cryptocurrency are becoming a bigger demographic.
So far, former President Donald Trump has been the most visible candidate for cryptocurrency. He has held fundraisers with industry leaders, was endorsed by the Winklevoss twins earlier this year, and became the first U.S. presidential candidate to accept cryptocurrency for their campaign donations. Even in the wake of his failed assassination attempt, Trump released a line of sneakers that featured the Bitcoin logo and declared himself as the crypto candidate. These sneakers went on to sell out.
While he seemed like a shoo-in to secure the crypto vote this year, Harris seems to be gaining on his path. First, a recent tweet from Coinbase’s Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad. says that several meetings have been held with Harris’s camp and that the Vice President appears open to dialogue with the industry. One of the criticisms of the current crypto administration, even from Trump himself, was that there was little collaboration between it and the crypto sector. But this admission from Shirzad would imply that the tide is changing.
“She [Harris] is going to introduce and support policies that ensure emerging technologies and that sort of industry can continue,” he said.
Another win for Harris’s camp is an endorsement from Mark Cuban, a billionaire entrepreneur and famous crypto lover. he said in recent tweets that she is not simply following the lead of the democratic party, as some have suggested. instead, he believes that she’s forging her own path and is actually leading the democratic party into a more pro-crypto space.
Such a glowing endorsement from such a respected figure in the crypto space is a good sign for Harris but has not been without its controversy. Notably, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, spoke out against Cuban’s endorsement and said that he did not support his view. Clearly, Harris still has some corners of the crypto sector to conquer.
The Complexities of a Crypto Candidate
Just like with most issues about politics, there are complexities on both sides of the aisle. On the one hand, Donald Trump has been vocally supportive of the crypto industry but this too has its issues. He famously referred to crypto as a scam years ago and has said that he will not support the creation of a digital dollar. This has turned some crypto users away from him and some still questioned the intentions behind his claims.
Harris, on the other hand, is engaging with the cryptocurrency sector later in the election cycle and while her efforts seem to have won over some, others will need more convincing before throwing their weight behind her. Regardless, it is clear that this election will be a historical one for the crypto sector.
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