GM, Joanna here.

The crypto industry has pumped $204 million into the 2024 US election — and it’s worked. 

The industry is closer than it’s ever been in winning commitments from lawmakers on key issues.

The respective teams of Vice President Kamala Harris and her Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump, appear convinced that catering to crypto is important in winning the battleground states on November 5.

Harris shocked crypto when she designated blockchain as an important component in maintaining US tech competitiveness.

Presumably, her campaign believes this is a way to reach young male voters — and to win over Wall Street, which is bullish on tokenised assets. 

Trump, meanwhile, has embraced the industry in his own way — by rapidly forming a DeFi project with his sons called World Liberty Financial and selling tokens.

The upshot is that it may not matter who wins in November — the US will have a new president who campaigned on a pro-crypto stance. 

This is a true turnaround. The Biden Administration is home to crypto’s most powerful sceptics, namely Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Now it seems the next administration is open to the bipartisan legislation the industry so urgently wants.

Crypto’s staggering political spending:

• Crypto-focused political action committees have raised more than $204 million, according to a spending tracker. 

• PACs have spent about $120 million — much of it on ads attacking crypto-sceptic candidates. 

• Crypto spending in the past three election cycles — $129 million — amounts to 15% of all known corporate contributions since 2010, according to a report by consumer rights advocates Public Citizen. 

• Crypto interests trail only the fossil fuel industry in spending, the report said.

To be sure, it’s unclear precisely what either Harris or Trump thinks about crypto. Neither candidate has outlined any clear policy agenda on digital assets.

Neither shows a deep understanding of the tech. 

Trump’s dubious DeFi project, which seems of a piece with his launch of dubious $100,000 souvenir watches, stoked criticism that his support of crypto is self-serving. 

Harris’s opponents in crypto dismiss her support as hollow words. 

We’ll only know the finer details of policy once a new president is installed.

Still, whoever the next president is, crypto has already won the elections.

Reach out to me at [email protected].

ICYMI

• Former FTX executives Nishad Singh and Gary Wang will be sentenced on October 30 and November 20, respectively. Caroline Ellison, the star witness in the trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to two years in prison for her role in bankrupting the exchange.

• The SEC settled securities violations charges with the companies behind Mango Markets, a DeFi protocol on Solana.

• A federal judge ruled that the prosecution of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm will go to trial.

Story of the Week

‘People should be concerned’ as Treasury finalises new US tax rules, warns MetaMask owner Consensys

A US Treasury Department official said new tax reporting rules will be finalised by the end of this year. Treasury had delayed these rules — which will require DeFi businesses to file detailed information about users — after a flood of feedback.

Post of the Week

Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao announced his return from prison with a simple “gm.” Zhao served a four-month sentence for failing to set up money laundering controls on Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.

Comment of the Week

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