Democrats launch 'Crypto for Harris' campaign to counter Trump’s industry appeal
Many in the industry feel the Biden-Harris administration is to blame for crypto being a partisan issue
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The Democratic arm of the cryptocurrency industry is determined not to let former President Trump run away with the crypto vote this fall.
FOX Business has learned that a new pro-Kamala Harris advocacy group called "Crypto for Harris" plans to host a virtual town hall meeting next week with a working speaker lineup that includes left-leaning billionaire entrepreneur and crypto advocate Mark Cuban, SkyBridge Capital founder and Trump critic Anthony Scaramucci and a handful of Democratic members of the House of Representatives.
Mark Cuban is seen during the friendly match played between Real Madrid and the Dallas Mavericks at Wizink Center pavilion in Madrid on Oct. 10, 2023. | Getty Images
Top Democratic Senate leaders have also been invited to speak at next week’s virtual town hall meeting, which is open to the public and will discuss ways to support the Harris campaign and promote fundraising initiatives.
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Crypto for Harris currently touts around 50 members, with its main organizers consisting of industry participants and policy experts.
"The United States must continue to be a leader in blockchain and crypto and groups like Crypto for Harris are working hard to ensure the right policies and conversations take place to ensure that outcome," said Jonathan Padilla, CEO of Web3 Marketing firm Snickerdoodle and one of the organizers of the advocacy group.
The move comes as the race for the White House narrows between Trump and Harris, the respective Republican and Democratic nominees. Trump has a huge head start in attracting crypto luminaries to his campaign amid the regulatory assault unleashed by the Biden administration, for which Harris serves as vice president. After Biden's withdrawal from the race, she is now its standard-bearer in the November election.
Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty Images / Getty Images)
Democratic lawmakers and crypto industry Democrats, however, are not throwing in the towel. They plan to orchestrate a coordinated effort to convince the 40 million Americans who own digital assets that Trump and the Republicans are not the crypto party.
"We’re not giving this issue to Trump," said Rep. Wiley Nickel, D-N.C., who is slated to speak at the meeting. "We want to encourage innovation and protect consumers, but allowing crypto to become a political football is only going to set the U.S. further behind."
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Trump and GOP lawmakers have made significant strides in winning over crypto voters. The former president has firmly embraced digital assets, promising to end tough Biden-era regulations on the industry. He headlined the annual Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, last month, where he raised more than $20 million from industry heavyweights and made promises to set up a strategic government reserve of bitcoin and even fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler "on day one" if he’s elected (a promise he will not be able to keep).
Former President Trump speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 27. (Brett Carlsen/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Harris, meanwhile, has added two former crypto advisers to her campaign in the past week: David Plouffe, who served on the advisory board of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, and Gene Sperling, a former board member of blockchain payments company Ripple.
"Bringing crypto experts like Plouffe and Sperling onto her campaign is a far more powerful statement than just standing up at a Bitcoin conference and pandering to the industry for votes," Moe Vela, a former Biden adviser and now senior adviser to crypto firm Unicoin, told FOX Business. "A Harris-Walz ticket brings the opportunity of a fresh start for our industry."
But others in the industry feel that Harris is partially to blame for three years of a heavy-handed regulatory approach under the Biden administration and attacks from crypto skeptics like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
"Like any organization, the Democratic Party is diverse in thought and substance. While I value Sen. Warren’s perspective, the promise and potential of Web 3 is too important and too transformative to not foster," Padilla said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on June 13, 2023. (Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., will host a separate private virtual meeting on Thursday morning for industry leaders from Coinbase, Ripple, Stellar and others, alongside Democratic operatives including Harris campaign adviser Anita Dunn and senior Biden economic adviser Lael Brainard. The meeting had initially been planned for Monday but was rescheduled. Members of Harris’ campaign are slated to be at the meeting.
Campaign staff did not return calls for comment.