Kamala Harris Likely to Share Bitcoin Stance in Coming Weeks — Industry Bulls Note Her Husband Is a ‘Crypto Guy’

A rumor spread like wildfire across crypto social media accounts this week: New Democratic Party standard-bearer Kamala Harris was “in talks” with Bitcoin 2024 organizers to speak at the industry’s annual conference, where her rival Donald Trump is scheduled to speak. “They’re making up their minds today,” organizer David Bailey said. tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.

Harris had been the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for a few days, and her team had only just begun to put together a campaign schedule — so the chances of her making it to a short-notice bitcoin summit in Nashville seemed unlikely. However, when the campaign confirmed that she would not be able to attend, the conference was outraged. “Unsurprisingly…it would have been a disaster for her,” Bailey wrote in X.

Sources close to the matter, however, told Fortune that Harris’s team had in fact seriously considered the invitation. That in itself is news. That the Democratic Party nominee, whose leadership has been relentlessly hostile to crypto, was “in talks” to speak to 30,000 Bitcoiners reflects how much policy could change under Harris.

“She doesn’t have much time to reset herself”

The industry now waits to see whether Harris, who has a relatively blank slate when it comes to cryptocurrencies, it could win back some of the crypto voters who are pledging support for Donald Trump in light of his pledge to be a “crypto president.” Meanwhile, some in his own party are already pressing her to adopt a more favorable position. So when can we expect to hear?

“She doesn’t have a lot of time to redefine herself. She has a very short window to definitively say that she is her own person,” says a crypto lobbyist and former White House aide, who spoke to Fortune on the condition of anonymity. He expects Harris to make her views on crypto clear in the coming weeks. Crypto “isn’t a bad issue to throw out with a few others as a way to say, ‘Hey, this was the Biden administration — my vision is going to be different. I’m more embracing of technology and innovation,’” he adds.

Gary DeWaal, a former senior trial attorney at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), told Fortune that he doesn’t expect Harris to comment on crypto before August 7, when she will announce her pick for vice president. “That’s her priority right now,” he said.

What would Harris’s stance be on cryptocurrencies?

The Harris team’s very act of musing on Bitcoin 2024 is itself a wordless statement about crypto; President Joe Biden’s campaign reportedly offered a knee-jerk rejection. His administration has been stubborn about passing regulation through Congress, and enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission against crypto companies have shot under the leadership of President Gary Gensler.

For starters, when Biden became president, many of his economic advisors They were former colleagues of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a vocal critic of cryptocurrencies. Harris doesn’t have the same connections. The crypto lobbyist shares that Harris’s tech advisor is considered pro-crypto, and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, is a “crypto guy.” He adds, “I hope she changes.”

In a potentially promising sign, entrepreneur and Bitcoin enthusiast Mark Cuban this week said Decrypt that he received several questions from Harris’ team about cryptocurrencies.

And Harris promoting a more open stance on crypto and blockchain technology compared to Biden would be consistent with her career representing California in the U.S. Senate, where she regularly advocated for Silicon Valley. In public office, “[she] has developed good relationships with technology industry leaders,” DeWaal adds. Among them are executives such as former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, with whom she cultivated a close relationship, which earned her a reputation as a pro-business politician.

All of this may lead the crypto industry to hope that Harris will turn the page on her predecessor’s hard line. But for now, at least, all they have is just that: hope.

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