Anika Begay
In a virtual meeting designed to improve relations between the cryptocurrency industry and the Democratic Party on Thursday, tensions escalated as executives lashed out at top Biden administration officials over the current regulatory repression on digital assets, according to classified information collected by Fox reporter Eleanor Terret.
Cryptocurrency Executives Clash With Biden Officials
The closed-door Zoom call, hosted by Rep. Ro Khanna, was expected to help the party’s 2024 presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, win back the cryptocurrency vote that has shifted toward the Republican Party, led by the continued support of former President Donald Trump. Bitcoin and blockchain technology.
However, Eleonora relations that the meeting quickly devolved into a heated debate over grievances, highlighting the uphill battle Democrats face in rallying the cryptocurrency industry.
Attendees from the cryptocurrency industry included high-profile figures such as Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal, Jeremy Allaire, CEO of stable currency issuer Circle, Uniswap’s Hayden Adams, Kraken CEO David Ripley, SkyBridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci, and venture capitalist Ron Conway.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, Federal Reserve official Lael Brainard and other senior White House staffers were on hand on the government side. Venture capitalists Mark Cuban and Chris Dixon were also reported to be in attendance at the virtual meeting.
“Assault on regulation”
According to Terret’s sources, the industry representatives have not held back in expressing their frustration with the Biden administration’s “regulatory assault” on the cryptocurrency industry.
“The executives didn’t hold back in telling administration officials how much damage they’ve done to the digital asset industry and the Democratic Party with their actions against digital assets,” an anonymous attendee told Fox Business.
Tensions erupted when Adeyemo claimed that banks and regulators were not actively trying to exclude the cryptocurrency industry from the broader context. financial systemIn response, a cryptocurrency industry executive challenged attendees to raise their hands if their companies were denied banking services due to White House policies—a move that saw nearly every industry representative raise their hands.
Despite the heated debate, some attendees managed to strike a more optimistic tone. Anthony Scaramucci expressed hope that Harris could still gain support in the digital asset community, noting that “it’s encouraging that these high-level officials took the time to come out and listen to our industry.”
Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal also suggested that the focus should now shift to Harris’s campaign and what she is “willing to do” to position the vice president as a “strong new face for crypto.”
At the time of writing, the total cryptocurrency market cap is $2 trillion after hitting a low of $1.6 trillion on Monday. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency on the market, hit a weekly high of $62,800 on Thursday evening after falling nearly 20% earlier this week.
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
