Could a Harris Administration Be Good for Crypto?
Cryptocurrency may not be the top issue on most Americans’ minds this election cycle, but with a close race, it’s possible (and likely) that the crypto community could make the difference. This is probably why Republican nominee Donald Trump is out actively courting the crypto vote. However, Vice President Kamala Harris has been fairly quiet on the topic. So if the future of cryptocurrency is a top concern for you when heading to the ballot box, how do you know who has your blockchain interests in mind?
Donald Trump Giving “Con Man” Vibes
If you ask most cryptocurrency enthusiasts, they might tell you that Trump is the man for crypto. However, there are a lot of red flags when it comes to his show of support for cryptocurrency.
It’s no surprise that “Don the Con” has a long history of financial schemes, including campaign finance fraud and famously shorting contractors over his decades in real estate development. So even though he’s been more vocally in support of cryptocurrency and has even launched his own line of NFTs, these efforts reek of pandering and outright grifting.
The official Trump NFTs have seen their activity plummet since their launch with a little bit of renewed interest around a second wave of them being minted. There is a 10% creator take tied to these, which means Trump (and his NFT partners) likely made some good money off of them. However, he doesn’t mention them on the campaign trail and seems to have forgotten all about them. Those listed on OpenSea are still trading above their original price of $99, but that’s probably just hopeful thinking with the occasional new sucker who comes around to take it off their hands.
If you’ve ever listened to Trump discuss cryptocurrency, it also quickly becomes clear he doesn’t know what it is or understand it. That’s to be expected, though. He is 78-years old after all.
Recently, Trump “made history” becoming the first US president (as far as we know) to make a payment using cryptocurrency. He visited PubKey, a cryptocurrency themed bar in New York City, where he made a transaction using Bitcoin. Or at least tried to. He couldn’t actually figure it out himself, and had two guys help him. The whole transaction took about a minute to complete, and it was painstakingly obvious he had no clue what was going on. Watch the video here.
Harris Could Bring Stability
One of Harris’s biggest advantages over Trump is that she seems to be offering stability in the face of his chaotic approach to policy and governance. While she hasn’t been particularly outspoken about cryptocurrency, some people are feeling like she could offer a good opportunity to reset the conversation and have a grown-up talk about America’s stance on cryptocurrency.
Much of the modern world, and even some of the developing world, has seemingly left the US in the dust when it comes to cryptocurrency adoption and regulation. You have countries around the world buying up Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and El Salvador has even made Bitcoin legal tender. The US, surprisingly, is a very big holder of Bitcoin….but only from the FBI seizing it in criminal investigations. So even though there’s a lot of crypto in the US’s wallet, that cryptocurrency is being put up to auction rather than being held in reserve.
The Biden administration is viewed as being tough on crypto, but like Trump, President Biden is old and likely doesn’t understand anything about blockchain technology. Now that his VP is the nominee, a lot of tech savvy business titans, like Mark Cuban, have jumped behind her hoping she’ll bring some much needed stability and leadership on the issue of cryptocurrency.
A “Crypto4Harris” group was established in June to help elect Harris and bring more Democrats around to sensible views on cryptocurrency. Their efforts seem to have been well-received with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling for a crypto bill to be passed this year.
The CEO of Snickerdoodle Labs, Jonathan Padilla, told Reuters, “The chief goal of everything we’re doing is to have a complete reset on crypto and blockchain policy.”
Harris Announces “Encouragement” of Crypto
In her most outspoken comments on crypto yet, Harris recently announced to a crowd of donors in New York her plans for the economy. “We will encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets while protecting consumers and investors,” she reportedly said during the event. This is exactly the kind of talk many in Wall Street and Silicon Valley have been waiting for. While cryptocurrency has found large success among retail investors and consumers, institutional adoption has been slow. This has largely been due to the regulatory uncertainty around cryptocurrency.
Now, Harris has given a clear sign that her administration will foster the growth of cryptocurrency with sensible regulation that can put institutional investors at ease and perhaps eliminate a lot of the inherent risks around a completely decentralized currency.
As a VanEck report put it, “On Bitcoin alone, however, we would argue that a Kamala Harris presidency might be even better for Bitcoin than a second term for Trump because it would, in our view, accelerate many of the structural issues that drive Bitcoin adoption in the first place.”
The Future is Bright
Regardless of who wins in November, it seems like cryptocurrency will see some big changes. Even if Trump’s embrace of crypto is less than genuine, the effect could still be drawing attention to it and increasing usage. Though his grifting does run the risk of playing into common crypto stereotypes of uncertainty and scams, which could potentially undermine cryptocurrency’s progress. And if Harris wins, we’ll likely see some cryptocurrency regulations, some of which could have a negative impact in the short term, but the oversight and institutional support could bring along the confidence needed for true mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency.
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