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A virtual meeting aimed at repairing relations between the cryptocurrency industry and the Biden administration took an ugly turn on Thursday morning, highlighting the struggles of progressive crypto advocates to rally industry support for Kamala Harris' presidential candidacy, Fox Business reported.
The Zoom call was hosted by California Rep. Ro Khanna and was aimed at making amends during a contentious election year with the burgeoning cryptocurrency industry, which has been the target of a major regulatory push by the Biden administration's financial regulators. With Vice President Kamala Harris now leading the way as a candidate, the party is looking to help 2024 candidate Harris win back the crypto vote from Republican opponent Donald Trump, who recently endorsed the crypto industry and vowed to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world.
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo delivered a speech outlining new measures by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to impose a second wave of sanctions on key actors and financial networks linked to Hamas. (Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
About 20 people were on the call, including Biden administration officials Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard and Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed. Christine Lucius, a senior adviser to Harris, was also on the call but did not speak, according to three people who attended the call.
Crypto attendees included billionaire tech entrepreneur and crypto investor Mark Cuban, Skybridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, venture capitalist and Democratic donor Ron Conway, and several executives from crypto companies including Ripple, Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap.
Rather than finding common ground, industry executives lambasted White House officials over regulatory attacks by government agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve. Attendees told Fox Business that the meeting seemed like a repeat of a roundtable hosted by Khanna in Washington, D.C., last month, where industry executives aired their frustrations with White House officials about the unfair treatment they'd received under the Biden administration.
WASHINGTON, DC – January 13: Lael Brainard, a member of the Federal Reserve Board and President Biden’s nominee to be the new Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve System, is sworn in during her Senate Banking Committee nomination hearing on Capitol Hill on January 13. (Photo by Drew Ungerer/Getty Images/Getty Images)
“The executives freely conveyed to the administration representatives how their actions on digital assets have hurt the crypto industry and the Democratic Party,” an attendee who requested anonymity told Fox Business. “They were basically just yelled at.”
Conway, for example, expressed “intense” frustration with the administration's empty promises to the industry. Conway, an early investor in Coinbase, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another tense moment came when Adeyemo told attendees that banks and regulators were not actively trying to cut the industry off from the overall financial system. In response, crypto industry executives asked participants on the call to show their hands if any of their companies had been denied banking services because of the White House policy. Nearly every industry representative raised their hand, according to two attendees.
Anthony Scaramucci, founder and managing partner of SkyBridge Capital II LLC, speaks at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. The New Economy Forum is produced by Bloomberg Media Group. (Brian van der Beek/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Despite these frictions, Scaramucci told Fox Business he is optimistic that Harris will be able to garner some support in the crypto community.
“It's encouraging to see these officials take the time to be here and listen to our industry,” Scaramucci said. “I understand that my colleagues in the crypto industry want to act now, but that's not how it works in Washington. I think we're making steady progress.”
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal also brought home a positive perspective.
“This was a Biden administration meeting, but now the focus needs to shift to the Harris team and what they're going to do,” he said. “She's the perfect candidate to bring a strong new face to the crypto space and break with the past.”
