2024 US Election: ‘Crypto for Harris’ campaign called a scam

Ahead of the 2024 US elections, an advocacy group for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris launched ‘Crypto4Harris’ campaign to challenge the appeal of Republican counterpart Donald Trump within the crypto sector. Crypto proponents, including former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, have called out the campaign for lacking substance.

Srinivasan has dubbed the campaign a Democratic “SCAM” because of the administration’s approach to the crypto sector. Before the 2024 US elections, White House officials also reportedly conducted a virtual roundtable with some crypto executives to engage on policy issues. Based on media reports, Harris only had a proxy representation at the conference.

‘Crypto for Harris’ doesn’t call for a policy shift

Balaji Srinivasan, an entrepreneur and former Chief Technology Officer with Coinbase, took to X to call out Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party. He argued that they are trying to gain the support of the crypto community without making any real policy efforts for a change.

Dubbing the campaign a “DEM SCAM,” Srinivasan said, “Crypto for Harris is a scam: they want crypto’s votes without spending any political capital.” The investor believes that if they wanted to help crypto, the Biden administration would fire SEC chair Gary Gensler to stop the agency’s “show trials.”

He further opines that the Democrats are trying to test whether the crypto community can be lured with empty promises instead of real change. Crypto lawyer Preston Byrne also underlined the different approaches by Trump and Harris. He suggests that Trump actively engaged with the crypto community while Harris is distant.

The difference between “crypto for Trump” and “crypto for Harris” is that Trump approached crypto, he didn’t make us come to him and beg https://t.co/9BkLQBeLCQ

— Preston Byrne (@prestonjbyrne) August 7, 2024

Bruce Fenton, CEO of Chainstone Labs, even claims that Crypto4Harris is “fake nonsense” as no crypto industry representative is “allowed to speak” in the campaign.

White House roundtable conducted ahead of 2024 US Elections

The comments come on the sidelines of a virtual White House roundtable where some crypto executives met with government officials, including Kristine Lucius, Domestic Policy Advisor to Kamala Harris. Yahoo Finance reported that the discussion aimed to engage the crypto community with the Democrats for better regulations. The attempt for such engagement also comes weeks after Harris’ campaign for President commenced, and the November elections are cutting close. The roundtable also reportedly made no commitments to the crypto community after they raised concerns like regulatory clarity.

Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss was quick to call out Kamala Harris for proxy representation at the roundtable. He sarcastically stated, “Harris is a no-show again for the latest crypto roundtable. But don’t worry, she’s really into crypto.”

Meanwhile, the official Crypto4Harris campaign page seemingly has only one post since it was launch on August 6 on X. Contrarily, Donald Trump Jr. has teased a crypto launch, possibly in the DeFi sector, with a post on the micro-blogging website.