The cryptocurrency industry has spent years clashing with Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration over regulatory issues, but executives expect an easier ride from Washington, regardless of who wins the White House next week.
Crypto asset managers including Bitwise and Canary Capital are planning new products ahead of what many executives expect to be a more crypto-friendly administration, while others including Ripple are planning a fresh push for crypto legislation in the new Congress, said executives and lawyers.
“Regardless who wins, there will be a new approach to how we move forward with crypto,” said Rebecca Rettig, chief legal and policy officer at crypto company Polygon Labs.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has pledged to be a “crypto president,” and executives also expect Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, to take a softer stance than Biden.
Harris has not yet detailed her crypto plans, but executives have been encouraged by her promise to promote digital asset innovation and protect crypto investors.
Harris surrogate and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, a crypto enthusiast, has also criticized a crypto crackdown under Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, a Biden appointee.
“Absolutely it will be friendlier under a Harris admin,” Cuban wrote in an email to Reuters, adding her promise to protect crypto users was “important.”
Gensler has insisted that the crypto industry is a risk to investors, pointing to the collapse of FTX and multiple other bankruptcies and scams that triggered calls for tighter regulation. Since bitcoin debuted in 2009, the crypto market has been extremely volatile.
Gensler’s SEC has brought dozens of enforcement actions against Coinbase, Kraken and others, accusing them of flouting U.S. securities laws meant to inform investors about potential risks.
The crypto players have denied the SEC’s allegations. They say cryptocurrencies, which have a global market value of around $2.5 trillion,
