The 2024 presidential election has become a referendum on the future of cryptocurrency—or at least that's what the blockchain industry is trying to convince politicians. Backing by the top-funded super PAC of the cycle, crypto leaders have already swayed former President Donald Trump to become a Bitcoin booster. Now they are hoping to convert Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party, to the crypto cause.
After Trump delivered a stump speech at the annual Bitcoin conference in July, hosted this year in Nashville, Democrats in the crypto sector have been working to turn the tide and convince blockchain supporters to vote blue while making inroads with the Harris campaign. A new grassroots organization, Crypto for Harris, is hosting a virtual town hall on Wednesday, which is set to be attended by top Democratic politicians, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and former House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), along with Mark Cuban and Adam Scaramucci.
In an interview with Fortune, Crypto for Harris organizer G Clay Miller, a former Senate assistant and organizer for the 2020 presidential campaign of Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), said that the idea came after watching Trump cultivate overwhelming support in the crypto industry. "There was a lot of pent-up energy from Democratic crypto operatives, who viewed this opportunity as a chance to reset the narrative for Democrats around crypto," he said.
Reset or retreat?
The last presidential election saw a wave of campaign funding from the crypto sector, although it largely came from one source: Sam Bankman-Fried and his now-bankrupt firm FTX, which spent upwards of $93 million on donations to candidates from across the aisle.
After his descent into infamy, Democrats—the most visible recipient of his stolen money, according to Bankman-Fried himself—quickly distanced themselves from the disgraced founder. The party also took aim at the crypto sector more broadly, holding a series of hearings as a referendum on the sector as regulators including Gary Gensler's Securities and Exchange Commission cracked down through enforcement actions.
Although crypto does have its supporters in Congress among Democrats, including Representative Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) and Representative Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.), Republicans positioned themselves as the embattled sector's champions, including by advancing two bills out of the House Financial Services Committee. Meanwhile, many crypto industry leaders blamed Biden administration officials and political appointees for the crackdown.
They also rushed to fill the Bankman-Fried-sized hole in crypto donations, with companies including Coinbase and a16z crypto spearheading lobbying and funding efforts through organizations such as Stand with Crypto and Fairshake, the crypto-focused super PAC with a war chest topping $200 million.
While the two groups, and many industry leaders, purport to back candidates from both political parties, the industry has taken a marked shift to the right after Trump began to embrace crypto. The former President, who once denounced Bitcoin, began to warm to the industry following the launch of an NFT collection and became a full-throated booster at the recent Bitcoin conference. Meanwhile, prominent industry figures like the Winklevoss twins, Marc Andreessen, and Ben Horowitz have voiced their support for Trump.
Harris, meanwhile, has remained a blank slate on crypto, though her team has made some advances toward the blockchain industry, including setting up private meetings with industry leaders. Others have voiced skepticism over any reset from the Biden administration, pointing to top advisers in her campaign who previously carved out anti-blockchain positions, including the former director and deputy director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese and Bharat Ramamurti.
Crypto for Harris
The new grassroots organization, Crypto for Harris, faces a tall order in convincing many in the industry to shift their allegiance to the Democratic Party. Miller—along with his two co-organizers, Democratic strategist Will Schweitzer and former Justice Department attorney Amanda Wick—are still mapping out the group's goals after Wednesday's town hall, including a national road show that will likely include fundraising efforts. For now, the group is not set up as a formal political action organization, although that could change in the future, Miller told Fortune. While Crypto For Harris may not be able to change the course of the campaign or win over the crypto industry, Miller said the goal is to start the conversation—and tamp down the enthusiasm around Trump.
Even with Harris's stance on crypto unclear, Miller said that Trump's newfound embrace of digital assets should be taken with a grain of salt. It was just a few years ago, after all, that he called Bitcoin a "scam."
"If you actually look at the actions of the Trump administration while he was in office, they were not particularly pro-crypto," Miller told Fortune. "There's a misunderstanding of a lot of pro-crypto Republican supporters on just how supportive Trump is."
Wednesday's event has an array of pro-crypto Democrats speaking, including Torres, Nickel, and a prepared video from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) But while Miller said the group has been in contact with the Harris campaign, nobody from her camp is set to make an appearance.
