Schumer joins a growing chorus of Democrats who support cryptocurrency, but Harris remains silent for now. – Today

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The 2024 presidential election has become a referendum on the future of cryptocurrency, or at least that’s what the blockchain industry is trying to convince politicians. Crypto leaders, backed by the most well-funded super PAC of the round, have already managed to convince former President Donald Trump to become a Bitcoin advocate. They now hope to turn Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, to the cryptocurrency cause.

Democrats in the cryptocurrency space have been trying to turn the tide and convince blockchain supporters to vote for the Democratic Party as they gain ground on Harris’ campaign following Trump’s speech at the annual Bitcoin conference in Nashville in July. A new grassroots group, “Crypto for Harris,” will host a virtual town hall on Wednesday with appearances from prominent Democratic politicians, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and former Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), as well as Mark Cuban and Adam Scaramucci.

G Clay Miller, a former Senate aide and organizer of Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign, told Fortune that the idea came after seeing Trump’s overwhelming support in the cryptocurrency industry. “There’s a lot of pent-up energy among Democratic crypto workers, and they see this opportunity as a chance to change the Democratic narrative around crypto,” he said.

¿Restart or rewind?

The last presidential election saw a wave of campaign financing in the cryptocurrency space, though much of that money came from a single source: Sam Bankman-Fried and his now-bankrupt company FTX, which funneled more than $93 million in donations to candidates from both parties.

After his rise to notoriety, the Democratic Party — the most visible recipient of his illicit funds, according to Bankman-Fried himself — quickly distanced itself from the disgraced founder. The party has also taken aim at the cryptocurrency industry more broadly, holding a series of hearings that served as a referendum on the industry, and regulators including the SEC’s Gary Gensler have stepped up enforcement actions.

While cryptocurrencies have Democratic supporters in Congress, such as Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., and Rep. Wiley Nickel, R-N.C., Republicans have positioned themselves as champions of the beleaguered industry, even introducing two bills before the House Financial Services Committee. Meanwhile, many crypto industry leaders have accused Biden administration officials and political officials of a crackdown.

They’re also rushing to fill the Bankman-Fried-sized crypto donation gap, with companies like Coinbase and a16z Crypto leading lobbying and fundraising efforts through groups like Stand with Crypto and Fairshake, a crypto-focused super PAC with more than $200 million.

Although both groups, as well as many industry leaders, have claimed to support candidates from both parties, the industry has turned sharply to the right after Trump began to embrace cryptocurrency. The former president, who once condemned Bitcoin, began to become more favorable to the industry after the launch of the NFT series and became a staunch defender at recent Bitcoin conferences. At the same time, industry celebrities such as the Winklevoss twins, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have also expressed their support for Trump.

Harris, for his part, remains blank on cryptocurrency, though his team has made progress in private meetings with industry leaders.Others are skeptical of a Biden administration reboot, noting that senior advisers to the Biden campaign have previously held anti-blockchain positions, including Brian Deese and Bharat Ramamurti, former director and deputy director of the National Economic Council.

Harris’s Cryptocurrency

The new grassroots group Crypto for Harris faces a major challenge in trying to convince many in the industry to switch allegiance to the Democratic Party. Miller and his two co-organizers, Democratic strategist Will Schweitzer and former Justice Department attorney Amanda Wicker, are still outlining the group’s goals after a town hall meeting on Wednesday, including a national tour that could include fundraisers. Miller told Fortune that the group is not currently established as a formal political action group, although that could change in the future. While Harris’s cryptocurrency may not be able to turn the tide of the campaign or win over the cryptocurrency industry, Miller said the goal is to start a conversation and curb the enthusiasm surrounding Trump.

While Harris’ stance on cryptocurrencies is unclear, Miller said Trump’s new embrace of digital assets should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, just a few years ago he called Bitcoin a “scam.”

“If you really look at the behavior of the Trump administration while in office, they have not been particularly supportive of cryptocurrency,” Miller told Fortune. “A lot of Republican supporters who support cryptocurrency have a misconception of how supportive Trump is.”

Wednesday’s event featured speeches from multiple pro-cryptocurrency Democrats, including from Torres, Nickell and a prepared video from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. But while Miller said the group has been in touch with the Harris campaign, no one from her team planned to appear.

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