Tech
US cryptocurrency advocacy group surpasses 1 million members after Biden’s veto
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Stand with Crypto, an advocacy organization for voters who own cryptocurrencies, saw its membership surpass 1 million on Wednesday, as cryptocurrency advocates push politicians to create a new regulatory framework for the industry of digital assets while avoiding more onerous compliance requirements.
Brian Armstrong, chief executive of Coinbase, an online platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies that helped launch Stand With Crypto last August, said the group’s rapid growth showed the potential voting power of users of cryptocurrency.
“This is a much larger voting bloc than most people probably would have expected,” Armstrong told Reuters.
The cryptocurrency industry is spending tens of millions of dollars in U.S. elections this year to promote pro-crypto candidates and defeat those pushing for more regulation.
Coinbase announced a $25 million donation to pro-crypto political action committee Fairshake on Monday, matching recent contributions from crypto payments firm Ripple and tech-focused venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Stand with Crypto has targeted voters in swing states and now has nearly 24,000 members in Georgia, where Democratic President Joe Biden beat Republican Donald Trump in 2020 by 11,779 votes, and more than 16,000 members in Arizona, where Biden won with just over 10,000 votes.
Armstrong said the group’s membership surge was fueled by frustration over Biden’s May 31 veto of a measure that sought to overturn the Securities and Exchange Commission’s accounting bulletin on cryptocurrencies, and by strong support for the bill sponsored by Republicans that would create a new legal framework for digital currencies.
The Republican-led House of Representatives passed the so-called Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act last month with bipartisan support, although the White House said it opposed it. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler warned that the bill could create new risks for investors and markets.
Coinbase officials have met with White House and Biden administration officials about the issue in recent months, a source familiar with the matter said.
Armstrong has said he will not support a presidential candidate because he believes cryptocurrency issues should be bipartisan to ensure necessary legislation is passed.
But he said Biden’s veto last week was clearly “a bad political move” given the broad bipartisan support for the measure.
“I think being anti-cryptocurrency is just bad politics. There’s no constituency you can win over this way, but you’re upsetting a large number of Americans who have used this technology,” he said.
Coinbase estimates that 52 million Americans have used cryptocurrencies, or about one in five Democrats, Republicans or independent voters, Armstrong said. Many were frustrated that industry rules were unclear.
“They are trying to elect representatives who align with their values,” he said. She said it’s unclear whether people in the rapidly growing “voting bloc” will vote in November’s presidential election based on digital asset issues, but that a subset certainly might.
The White House and Biden’s campaign declined to comment.
Biden’s campaign has stepped up its outreach to the cryptocurrency industry and users in recent weeks, a source familiar with the matter said.
The Trump campaign announced last month that it would accept cryptocurrency donations. Biden’s campaign had no immediate comment on whether it would accept such donations.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; additional reporting by Hannah Lang; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Michael Perry)