Bloomberg: Trump-Harris showdown highlights differences between crypto and politics

Author: Emily Nicolle, Bloomberg; Translator: Baishui, Golden Finance

The Lonely Left

With Donald Trump making positive noises about digital assets, digital asset investors are ecstatic about the prospect of a pro-cryptocurrency president in the United States. As a result, the industry's tolerance for political diversity appears to be waning.

The crypto industry is generally supportive of Trump's entry into the White House in November, with everyone from executives to day traders supporting the Republican administration. The excitement reached a climax on Saturday when Trump spoke at a Bitcoin-themed conference in Nashville, revealing his campaign promise to turn the United States into the "crypto capital of the earth."

In the Trump camp, the loudest voices in the cryptocurrency field include Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, BitGo boss Mike Belshe, Messari founder Ryan Selkis, and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. Yet few in the industry support the other side — at least in part because expressing such views can spark online attacks.

“Crypto people who defected to the Democrats this year are traitors,” Selkis wrote in a post on X on Monday. He resigned as CEO of Messari earlier this month after growing criticism of his rhetoric on the election.

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz posted on social media but faced backlash for endorsing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, whose campaign has yet to take a stance on cryptocurrencies. Calls for neutrality were also strongly condemned, and even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin was strongly condemned for urging investors in a blog post to remember that there are other issues to consider when voting.

For some, Trump's policies on issues such as immigration make supporting his campaign pointless. “No matter what his campaign thinks about tech or crypto, there are things that matter more to me,” Marvin Ammori, chief legal officer at decentralized exchange Uniswap, wrote in a July 19 X post.

But given the Biden administration’s crackdown on the crypto industry, it’s hard for Trump-supporting industry players to fathom siding with the left. In Nashville, Trump’s promise to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler drew the loudest cheers of the night, and the vitriol aimed at the regulator caught him off guard. “I didn’t know he was so unpopular,” Trump joked.

Before this election, few issues had so thoroughly divided the crypto community. As the November vote approaches, the industry’s “we’re in this together” mentality has all but evaporated, and it doesn’t look likely to return anytime soon.

Chart shows: Market rebounds, crypto venture capital funds recover

“He fell in love with the crowd: young, ambitious, unregulated. Someone asked him, ‘What do you think of cryptocurrency?’ He said, ‘I like it, and I don’t like it all going abroad.’ Of course, the crowd went crazy.”