Crypto industry executives reportedly yelled at the anti-crypto Biden-Harris Administration on Thursday during a meeting aimed at repairing relations between the cryptocurrency and the White House.
Fox Business Reported The White House hosted an online meeting with crypto industry executives on Thursday, hosted by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), as the Biden-Harris administration has been cracking down on the burgeoning industry.
Now, with Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, Democrats are hoping to win back policy-focused voters and donors who began flocking to former President Donald Trump.
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About 20 people were on the call, including Biden administration officials Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, Vice Chairman of the National Economic Council Lael Brainard and White House Chief of Staff Bruce Reed. Christine Lucius, a senior adviser to Harris, was also on the call but did not speak, according to three people who attended the call.
Crypto attendees included billionaire tech entrepreneur and crypto investor Mark Cuban, Skybridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, venture capitalist and Democratic donor Ron Conway, and several executives from crypto companies including Ripple, Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap.
Rather than reconcile, crypto company executives attacked the Biden-Harris Administration for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) heavy-handed anti-crypto actions.
“The officials freely conveyed to the administration representatives how damaging their actions on digital assets have been to the crypto industry and the Democratic Party. They were essentially yelled at,” one attendee at the virtual meeting told Fox Business.
Ron Conway, a venture capitalist and Democratic donor who is an early investor in digital currency exchange Coinbase, “vehemently” criticized the administration for making empty promises.
Adeyemo argued that banks and regulators are not actively trying to separate the crypto industry from the banking system. When one crypto executive asked fellow crypto industry representatives to raise their hands if any of their companies had been denied banking services due to Democratic policies, nearly all of the industry representatives raised their hands. Adeyemo was likely Promoted For a future Harris administration if she is elected president.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said Harris could be more pro-crypto, despite her frustrations with the current administration.
“This was a Biden administration meeting, but now the focus needs to be on the Harris team and what they plan to do,” Grewal said. “She’s the perfect candidate to be a strong new face for crypto and break with the past.”
Pro-cryptocurrency Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) objected to Harris’ “pivot” to crypto, saying that for nearly four years the Biden-Harris Administration has “waged an ideological war on crypto innovation in the United States. At the Administration’s direction, Gary Gensler has denied the industry a basic regulatory framework and attacked companies with baseless enforcement actions.”
For nearly four years, the Biden-Harris Administration has waged an ideological war against cryptocurrency innovation in the U.S. At the Administration’s behest, Gary Gensler has denied the industry a basic regulatory framework and attacked companies with baseless enforcement actions.
— Bill Hagerty (@BillHagertyTN) August 8, 2024
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who have each donated $1 million to President Trump, laughed at the possibility of Harris turning to cryptocurrency.
Cameron wrote: “The most interesting (and ludicrous?) part of the Crypto4Harris plan is their ‘nuanced’ crypto policy approach – as if a nuanced approach were an appropriate corrective to a regime that wanted to nuke an entire industry. I think the war on crypto has been largely peaceful.”
The most interesting (funny?) part of the Crypto4Harris plan is their “nuanced” crypto policy approach, as if a nuanced approach were an appropriate corrective for an administration that wanted to nuke an entire industry. I think the war on crypto has been largely peaceful. pic.twitter.com/PXOwQDsyja
— Cameron Winklevoss (@cameron) August 9, 2024
President Trump has promised to become a “cryptocurrency president” if he is re-elected in November.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter. Sean Moran 3.
