United States Vice President Kamala Harris made her first public statement about crypto during her presidential election campaign. In comments made at a Wall Street fundraiser, Harris vowed to encourage investment in artificial intelligence and digital assets.
“We will partner together to invest in America’s competitiveness, to invest in America’s future. We will encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets while protecting our consumers and investors,” Harris stated at a fundraiser in Manhattan, as reported by Bloomberg on Sept. 22.
“We will create a safe business environment with consistent and transparent rules of the road,” she added. “We will invest in semiconductors, clean energy and other industries of the future, and we will cut needless bureaucracy.”
This is the first time Harris has publicly addressed crypto since becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential frontrunner. Her Republican rival, Donald Trump, has also sought support from the crypto industry.
The industry has speculated whether Harris would adopt a different approach to crypto compared to President Joe Biden, who some perceive as unfriendly to the sector.
In August, Harris’ senior campaign adviser, Brian Nelson, hinted she would support crypto policies if she wins the presidential election in November. However, she emphasized that the industry needs “rules of the road,” citing the collapse of some companies.
“This is an important and constructive statement from Kamala Harris,” Coinbase policy chief Faryar Shirzad noted in a Sept. 22 post on X.
“It’s not nearly as forward-leaning as the concrete and visionary positions taken by Donald Trump, but it’s still notable because she recognizes digital asset innovation as being important and on par with AI,” he added.
Alexander Grieve, vice president of government affairs at venture firm Paradigm, called Harris’ remarks “encouraging,” stating that regardless of the outcome in November, “this should be the last anti-crypto administration.”
“This is progress and progress is good,” crypto venture firm Variant’s legal chief Jake Chervinsky commented on X. “But ‘while protecting our consumers and investors’ could mean a lot of things.”
“The anti-crypto army uses ‘consumer protection’ as a smoke screen to conceal their attempts to destroy our industry,” he claimed. “I, for one, want to see policy details.”
Crypto has become a campaign issue, with US crypto companies, including Coinbase, Ripple, and Gemini, spending nearly $120 million to influence the upcoming elections, as reported by Public Citizen in August.
Trump has released four non-fungible token collections, endorsed his family’s crypto platform, and has closely embraced the crypto industry. He’s promised to be a “crypto president” and to fire US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, whose agency has initiated multiple enforcement actions against major crypto players.
Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck in national polls, with Harris leading Trump by only 2.9 percentage points, according to Sept. 22 data from FiveThirtyEight.
