Natalie Brunelle, host of the “Coin Stories” podcast, discusses whether Bitcoin will become the next global reserve currency on “Making Money.”
Democrats in the crypto industry are determined not to allow former President Trump to hog the crypto vote this fall.
FOX Business has learned that a new advocacy group supporting Kamala Harris, Crypto for Harris, is set to host a virtual town hall meeting next week, with speakers expected to include left-leaning billionaire entrepreneur and crypto advocate Mark Cuban, SkyBridge Capital founder and Trump critic Anthony Scaramucci, and several Democratic members of the House of Representatives.
Mark Cuban is photographed at a friendly match between Real Madrid and the Dallas Mavericks at the Wijnink Center Pavilion in Madrid on October 10, 2023. | Getty Images
Top Democratic senators have also been invited to a virtual town hall meeting next week, which will be open to the public, to discuss ways to support Harris' campaign and advance its fundraising efforts.
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Crypto for Harris currently has about 50 members, with its main organizers being industry players and policy experts.
“The United States needs to remain a leader in blockchain and cryptocurrency, and groups like Crypto for Harris are working hard to ensure the right policies and dialogue are in place to ensure that outcome,” said Jonathan Padilla, CEO of Web3 marketing company Snickerdoodle and one of the advocacy group's organizers.
The move comes as the race for the White House between Republican and Democratic candidates Trump and Harris narrows. With Biden’s administration, in which Harris serves as vice president, launching a regulatory offensive, Trump has a major advantage in bringing crypto luminaries onto his campaign trail. With Biden dropping out of the race, Harris will be his standard-bearer in the November election.
Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty Images/Getty Images)
But Democrats in Congress and the crypto industry aren't giving up. They're planning a concerted effort to convince the 40 million Americans who own digital assets that President Trump and the Republican Party are not the party of crypto.
“We are not going to hand this issue over to President Trump,” said Rep. Wiley Nickels (D-N.C.), who is scheduled to speak at the rally. “We want to encourage innovation and protect consumers, but using cryptocurrency as a political tool will only put America further behind.”
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Trump and Republican lawmakers have made great strides in winning over cryptocurrency advocates, with the former president promising to embrace digital assets and end Biden-era strict regulations on the industry. Last month, Trump took to the main stage at the annual Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, where he raised more than $20 million from industry heavyweights, promised to set up a strategic government reserve for Bitcoin, and even promised to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler “on day one” if elected (a promise he will likely not keep).
Former President Trump spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee on July 27. (Brett Carlsen/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Harris added two former crypto advisors to her campaign last week: David Plouffe, who served on the advisory board of the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, and Gene Sperling, a former director at blockchain payments company Ripple.
“Having crypto experts like Plauf and Sperling on the campaign trail sends a much stronger message than standing at a bitcoin conference pandering to the industry to garner votes,” Moe Bera, a former Biden adviser and now senior adviser to crypto firm Unicoin, told Fox Business. “The combination of Harris and Waltz offers an opportunity for a fresh start for the industry.”
But others in the industry believe Harris is partly to blame for the Biden administration's heavy-handed regulatory approach over the past three years and attacks from crypto skeptics like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
“The Democratic Party, like any organization, is diverse in its views and content. While I value Senator Warren's perspective, the promise and potential of Web 3 is too important and transformative not to foster it,” Padilla said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 13, 2023. (Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., is set to host another private virtual meeting on Thursday morning with industry leaders from Coinbase, Ripple, Stellar and other Democratic Party officials, including Harris campaign adviser Anita Dunn and Biden campaign senior economic adviser Lael Brainard. The meeting was originally scheduled for Monday but has been rescheduled. Members of the Harris campaign are also expected to attend the meeting.
Election staff did not return calls seeking comment.
