Sen. Schumer vows to pass crypto legislation in 2024 as the industry courts VP Harris

The crypto industry wants to make one thing clear: it’s not all in on former President Donald Trump. 

A collection of crypto insiders and elected officials gathered Wednesday evening to stage a forceful rejoinder to the growing narrative that the digital asset industry is fully in the Republican party’s camp ahead of this year’s US presidential election. Organizers said the streamed event, dubbed the “Crypto4Harris Town Hall,” was the result of a “grass roots” effort that came together organically. 

In doing, they managed to grab the attention of those — like Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — who very well may help decide the industry’s fate in the US.

“And why are we here today?” Schumer asked in an attempt to clarify the stakes. “Because we all support Vice President Kamala Harris to be our next president, and we all believe in the future of crypto.”

Schumer went on to argue that pro-crypto legislation is key to innovation in the US. And in a moment seemingly designed to make headlines, he said that he is committed to getting something passed out of the Senate and signed into law by the end of this year. 

“Crypto is here to stay no matter what,” said the senator. “So Congress must get it right.”

Others on the call went after Trump directly, in what could be viewed as an attempt to woo the crypto constituency that had dialed into the town hall. 

“There’s only one candidate running for president who’s called crypto a ‘scam,’ and that’s Donald Trump,” said North Carolina Congressman Wiley Nickel, referring to Trump’s opinion on bitcoin before a recent 180. “Donald Trump is just totally full of shit.”

The multiple Democratic Representatives and Senators on the call were joined by pro-crypto businesspeople, all making the same case: Harris is better suited to advance the industry in the US than Trump, and Republicans aren’t crypto’s best bet.

Justin Slaughter, the VP of regulatory affairs at the crypto-investment company Paradigm, made the industry’s case for Harris. “I continue to believe that crypto represents Democratic and progressive values,” said Slaughter. “We’re long overdue for a reset,” he added, arguing that Harris is well positioned to move past what the industry views as the Biden Admin’s anti-crypto stance. 

“Supporting crypto is not about supporting the bags of elite bitcoin maxis,” said Mark Cuban, using a slang term to derisively refer to folks who argue that the original cryptocurrency will win out to the exclusion of all others. “Republicans couldn’t care less, they just want to see the bitcoin maxis get richer.”

If the goal of Wednesday’s town hall was to convince single-issue crypto voters and industry insiders that Democrats generally and Harris specifically are a better option than their Republican counterparts, then the Crypto4Harris organizers have their work cut out for them. 

Last month, the Republican party added supporting crypto to its official party platform. 

Still, Crypto4Harris’ message likely didn’t fall on deaf ears. Yesterday, before the town hall kicked off, NBC News reported that the pro-crypto PAC Fairshake planned to spend $3 million in support of two Democratic Senate candidates this fall.