Kamala Harris Pledges To Support Digital Asset Industry In First Public Crypto Comments

Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has joined her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, in seeking to garner support from the crypto industry.

On Sept.22, Harris vowed to encourage investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital assets during a fundraiser at the Cipriani Wall Street venue in New York City.

“We will partner together to invest in America’s competitiveness, to invest in America’s future,” Harris said. “We will encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets while protecting our consumers and investors.”

Harris emphasized the need to establish clear regulatory guidelines — eluding to persistent criticisms levied at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) throughout Joe Biden’s presidency.

“We will create a safe business environment with consistent and transparent rules of the road.”

The fundraiser at Cipriani Wall Street raised $27 million for Harris' campaign — the largest single-event haul since she became the Democratic presidential nominee. This event was part of a broader surge in Harris’ fundraising efforts. Harris raised more than $189 million during August, more than quadrupling Donald Trump’s $44 million over the same period, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.

Crypto Community Reacts

Harris’ remarks drew mixed reactions from the crypto community.

Faryar Shirzad, Coinbase’s policy chief, welcomed the comments, calling them “important and constructive.”

“It’s not nearly as forward-leaning as the concrete and visionary positions taken by Donald Trump, but it’s still notable because she recognizes digital asset innovation as being important, on par with AI,” he tweeted. “Kamala Harris going out of her way to mention crypto should send a clear message that the Biden/Warren era of destruction is over.”

Alexander Grieve, vice president of government affairs at Paradigm, a major venture capital firm focused on crypto and web3 investments, called Harris’ remarks “encouraging,” predicting that Biden’s presidency will likely be the last “anti-crypto administration” regardless of the outcome of the election.

Hayden Adams, chief executive officer (CEO) of Uniswap Labs, the team behind the largest decentralized exchange by TVL, also praised Harris for her pro-crypto remarks.

Notably, Uniswap Labs, received a Wells Notice from the SEC in April, indicating that the SEC has completed an investigation into whether the company violated securities laws.

However, not everyone in the crypto community is bullish about the prospect of a Harris presidency.

Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer (CLO) at Variant, a crypto venture firm, raised concerns that Harris’ focus on “protecting consumers and investors” could signal more heavy-handed regulation, and called on the campaign to publish a crypto policy platform.

“This is progress and progress is good…but ‘while protecting our consumers and investors’ could mean a lot of things,” he wrote on X. “The anti-crypto army uses ‘consumer protection’ as a smoke screen to conceal their attempts to destroy our industry. I, for one, want to see policy details.”

Kashif Raza, CEO of Bitinning, a crypto education platform, inferred that Harris’ use of the term “digital assets” likely described central bank digital currencies, real-world assets on private blockchains, and other blockchain initiatives from private firms, rather than public cryptocurrencies.

Industry advocates working with Harris

On Sept. 19, speaking at the Token2049 conference in Singapore, Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, revealed that a group of web3 advocates, including himself, had been working with Harris' campaign to develop more industry-friendly policies.

“There’s a group of cryptocurrency advocates, Bitcoin advocates, etc., that are working alongside her to distance the Democratic Party away from Elizabeth Warren and [SEC chairman, Gary Gensler],” Scaramucci said. “I believe that we are making progress, and I think it’s going in the right direction.”

Mark Cuban, the celebrity investor, has also sought to position Kamala Harris as more favorable to Web3 compared tothe Biden administration following her rise to the top of the Democratic Party ticket.

“It's obvious that Kamala is going in-depth into not just crypto in general, but web3 and what it is capable of,” Cuban told The Defiant last month. “I expect her to be a huge positive for the industry."

In August, Brian Nelson, a senior adviser to the Harris campaign, hinted that Harris would support crypto-friendly policies if elected but emphasized the need for clear regulations.

“She’s going to support policies that ensure that emerging technologies and that sort of industry can continue to grow,” Nelson said,

Trump’s pro-crypto pivot

In recent months, Donald Trump, the former president and Republican presidential nominee, has sought to position himself as an ally to the crypto industry.

Trump has repeatedly promised to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler and implement crypto-friendly regulations including supporting the U.S.-based industry. At a Bitcoin conference in July, Trump pledged to ensure the U.S. never sells its Bitcoin holdings and claimed he would make the country the “crypto capital of the planet.”

However, critics highlight that Trump called Bitcoin a “scam” and crypto a “disaster waiting to happen” in 2021.