Author: Olga Kharif, Bloomberg; Compiled by Tao Zhu, Golden Finance
Since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate, the cryptocurrency industry has been hoping to “restart” with the White House. In other words, there are signs that Harris's views on cryptocurrencies will be friendlier than President Joe Biden.
However, the exact outline of her underlying attitude to the industry may remain a mystery for some time, leaving cryptocurrency people uneasy.
It's no secret that the industry has been on the defensive under the Biden administration. Agencies such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission have been relentlessly tracking down cryptocurrency businesses, suing exchanges Coinbase Global Inc., Binance, and Kraken, among others. Biden vetoed a bill to repeal the rules, which would have made it easier to provide cryptocurrency escrow. Will the Harris administration be any different?
US Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the Democratic National Convention on August 22. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
There are signs that Harris might adopt a different strategy. The newly formed grassroots organization Crypto4Harris recently held a conference. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Chuck Schumer) also attended the meeting and said he hoped to pass legislation on digital assets as soon as possible. Many cryptocurrency executives have spoken to the Harris campaign, saying they have shown a willingness to listen to the industry's concerns — something they hadn't seen before this summer in the Biden administration.
Still, despite the industry's thirst for details, the exact Harris' attitude towards crypto remains a blank sheet of paper. The industry's best achievement so far was during the Democratic National Convention, when Harris' campaign advisers said the party's candidates would support measures to help develop digital assets.
“I'd be surprised if the Harris campaign launched a detailed crypto platform before the election,” said Hilary Allen, a law professor at the American University Washington School of Law. “Despite the huge amount of money the crypto industry has invested in the election, crypto isn't a prominent issue at all for most voters.” Harris also has many more mainstream issues to pay attention to — inflation, the Middle East conflict, whatever. A large number of people are concerned about these issues.
While crypto voters may be outspoken, their ranks are still small. According to a survey by the Federal Reserve last year, only about 7% of American adults owned or used cryptocurrencies in 2023, down 3 percentage points from 2022 and 5 percentage points from 2021. The number of people concerned about cryptocurrencies may have increased since the launch of spot Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds, but those who invest in these funds may have little or no interest in the regulatory challenges of cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrency was not mentioned in the 92-page official Democratic platform released last week. (Cryptocurrency has taken up a section of the Republican agenda.) Harris made no mention of cryptocurrencies in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last Thursday.
Above all, trying to decipher the Harris administration's attitude towards cryptocurrencies is disheartening for a simple reason: the teacup is still empty.