U.S. presidential candidates increasingly vocal on cryptocurrency

Author: Casey Wanger, Blockworks; Compiler: Songxue, Golden Finance

Cryptocurrency has become one of the more popular topics early in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, but this trend may not continue into the primaries.

So far, several candidates vying for the Republican nomination, including Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have given a thumbs up to the digital asset space. Very positive reviews.

Ramaswamy appeals to voters interested in cryptocurrencies who have a history of loathing unelected officials such as SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.

“The problem with agencies like the Fed or the SEC is that you have a group of people who shouldn’t get the job in the first place,” Ramaswamy said at the MainNet conference in New York this week. “The problems with agencies like the FDA and SEC There is a major problem with this kind of regulation through an enforcement paradigm where they refuse to pre-specify the actual content of the rules and instead demonstrate what the rules are by picking bad apples after the fact.”

DeSantis has also tied digital asset issues to widespread dissatisfaction with Republicans, joining the cryptocurrency conversation, such as when he criticized central bank digital currencies for a lack of privacy at a July 2024 conference. The Florida governor also pledged to end “Biden’s war on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.”

“More than 50 million Americans use or own digital assets. Presidential candidates — like Vivek Ramaswamy — are making the right contacts with cryptocurrency voters,” Blockchain Association CEO Christine Kristin Smith said.

Even so, Ramaswamy and DeSantis face an uphill battle at the polls. Ramaswamy’s current approval rating is about 8%, while DeSantis has just over 14% of Republican voters, according to polling firm FiveThirtyEight.

Gensler, who leads the SEC, is currently serving a five-year term that ends in June 2026, but some speculate the anti-encryption agency chief could be ousted sooner.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a recent interview that if a Republican wins the White House in 2024, Gensler could be out in 2025 and that he is paying close attention to how the current candidates deal with cryptocurrencies.

“(Presidential candidates) see this as an opportunity to challenge the current administration’s policies that have had an impact on regulators that they believe are not Consistent with the aspirations of the American people.” “This could become a hot topic in the 2024 presidential campaign.”

Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also shared some pro-Bitcoin views, starting accepting cryptocurrencies as campaign donations and advocating for a capital gains tax on Bitcoin.

Smith said: “We welcome (candidates’) participation and look forward to seeing thoughtful crypto platforms — marked by the right to code and trade privately, as well as strong consumer protections — from candidates across the political spectrum. emerge.”

It remains to be seen whether cryptocurrency will become an important issue as the campaign develops.