Kamala Harris, Democrats Seek ‘Reset’ with Crypto Industry

The US Presidential election is more than three months away, but we have already witnessed a seismic shift from within the Democratic party. President Joe Biden, who was going to run for re-election this fall, announced in early July that he has reversed course and will no longer seek a second term. Though this news came as a shock, it was not a huge surprise for anyone who watched Joe Biden’s first debate against Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump, which can be best described as a trainwreck.

In the weeks since Vice President Harris has hit the campaign trail as the Democratic nominee we have seen a marked shift in the tone of the Democrats as well as how they are perceived by the American public. One of those shifts has to do with the relationship between Democrats and the crypto industry, which has been strained for most of Biden’s presidency. Harris and her team are looking to change the way Democrats are perceived by the big players in the cryptocurrency world and are already making efforts to do exactly that.

Harris Team Reached Out to Crypto Companies

Over the last two years, President Biden has been increasingly criticized by US business leaders as being “bad for business” in the United States. Whether this label is deserved or not is a matter of debate, but the reality we are witnessing this election season is that Republicans are seeing a large influx of campaign donations from businesses across an array of industries, but especially from the crypto sector.

Kamala Harris and her team are aware of this and are using the recent shift in Democratic leadership as a way of cleaning the slate and starting fresh with the crypto industry. Just this week, reports surfaced that her team reached out to Coinbase, Ripple Labs, and Circle to meet with company leaders.

On its face this may look like nothing more than an effort to secure campaign funding, but the Harris team has maintained that their goal is to foster relationships that will help establish sensible regulations governing crypto as an asset class. Something that may help Kamala Harris in her attempt to court the crypto industry is her California connections. Being that many of the biggest players in crypto have roots or bases in California, there is a line of thinking that says Harris will leverage her local connections in an effort to prove to the crypto industry that she is serious about their wants and needs.

New Singer but Same Song from Democrats

If we wind the clocks back four years, the recent rhetoric from Democrats will sound awfully familiar because it truly is the same song and dance from the 2020 election. Four years ago, companies like Coinbase and Ripple welcomed Joe Biden’s election victory because he seemed to vehemently support the establishment of cryptocurrency regulations and guidelines. Before long though, it was clear that President Biden wanted almost nothing to do with crypto thanks to his complete and total inaction on the subject.

The sour taste these last four years have left in the mouths of crypto business leaders is not one that will soon be forgotten, and for this reason it will be interesting to see just how eager Coinbase, Circle, and other companies will be to meet with the Harris team. Beyond that, we will be waiting to see just how serious Harris is about establishing the regulatory framework that has long been needed in the US.