Sen. Schumer speaks at the Crypto4Harris event

A screenshot of Sen. Schumer speaking at the Crypto4Harris event

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

The Crypto4Harris event argued Democrats were crypto’s best bet.

8/15/24 2:32PM

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.”

“There’s only one candidate running for president who’s called crypto a ‘scam,’ and that’s Donald Trump.”

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.

“Republicans couldn’t care less, they just want to see the bitcoin maxis get richer.”

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.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy10h

Bitcoin drops to lowest level since day after Trump’s election win

Bitcoin dropped to its lowest level since November 6, 2024, the day after the US presidential election, when it had been in ascendance amid unbridled enthusiasm about the incoming “crypto president.”

While the asset had a quick rebound from the weekend bloodbath, it is now down 2.2% in the past hour, which has brought the price below its lows seen in the sessions following the announcement of reciprocal tariffs on “Liberation Day” in April 2025.

It briefly broke below $74,000 and, according to Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani, could still “bottom out” in the $60,000 levels.

Several experts said bitcoin was in the throes of a bear market, including Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, who nevertheless said it was “close to an end.”

Bitfinex analysts said that the broader flow picture suggests a clear risk-off rotation, with investors reallocating toward cash and gold amid rising macroeconomic and political uncertainty.

“In this environment, the lack of ETF absorption has amplified downside volatility, reinforcing the importance of institutional spot demand as a stabilizing force during periods of market stress,” they said.

Sage D. Young11h

Standard Chartered predicts solana will more than double in price by end of year

The price of solana is trading at $100, a nearly two-year low, but Standard Chartered forecasts that the token will climb to $250 by the end of 2026.

Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital asset research, pointed to flows on decentralized exchanges on solana beginning to shift from meme coins to solana-stablecoin pairs, aided by AI-driven micropayments.

“AI-driven micropayments using stablecoins are starting to demonstrate that the ‘order of magnitude’ cost reduction on solana can enable entirely new markets (in this case micropayments) to develop,” Kendrick wrote in a Tuesday note.

Market-implied probabilities derived from event contracts show that investors think there’s a 30% chance the token will go lower than $40 in 2026. On the bullish side, traders are pricing in a 41% chance it will climb higher that $200 in the same period.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Even though the firm expects solana to trade significantly higher by the end of the year, the firm lowered its initial forecast of $310 and predicts the token will underperform ethereum in the next two years.

“Beyond that, if it achieves sufficient scale, we think SOL will be due for a catch-up as this new market takes shape,” Kendrick said.

On a longer horizon, Standard Chartered predicts the token will climb to $2,000 by 2030.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

14h

Bernstein analyst says bitcoin could bottom out at $60,000, but expects its “most consequential cycle” after that

“This is not a ‘bull market correction’ or ‘a dip.’ It is a full-bore, 2022-like, Leonardo-DiCaprio-in-The-Revenant-style crypto winter,” Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan wrote.