Ethereum
Crypto becomes political – Ethereum Giant Consensys wants to stay out of it
As crypto emerges as an increasingly partisan issue in the 2024 presidential election – what about Donald Trump make openings to the industry, and President Joe Biden threatening to kill legislation intended to protect it – US crypto companies have started spending feverishly to help the campaigns of pro-crypto candidates across the country.
Industry stalwarts like Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz and Ripple Labs have already dedicated themselves tens of millions of dollars to influence key Senate and House races this year. Meanwhile, crypto leaders have started kiss openly Trump in a way that was unthinkable four years ago.
But amid the crypto industry’s rise as a force in U.S. election fundraising, one of the country’s most valuable crypto companies has chosen to stay away completely of partisan politics.
Consensys, the 7 billion dollars Software giant Ethereum notably refrained from supporting crypto-friendly candidates in the 2024 elections. For the company’s founder and CEO Joe Lubin, this is a deliberate choice intended to ensure success long-term investment in the crypto industry (disclosure: Consensys is one of 22 investors in Decrypt).
“Politically, we liked to stay neutral,” Lubin said. Decrypt. “It makes no sense for us to choose one broken party over another.”
Relying on one political party or faction to support crypto is not as sustainable a long-term strategy as shoring up the legality of the industry through the judicial system, the Ethereum the co-creator believes.
“The solution to all of this, the way we land… is to rely on the courts,” he said.
Last month, Consensys filed a preventive trial against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), arguing that the regulator has no legal authority to classify ETH as a security – a position it has secretly detained for more than a year the trial was revealed.
“The lawsuit with the SEC is a good platform for us to help people understand the benefits of technology,” Lubin said. “I don’t think we need to be politically partisan or make political donations to be able to speak clearly and loudly on this topic.”
This does not mean, however, that the entrepreneur has completely avoided politics, far from it. Lubin says Consensys regularly has closed-door conversations with politicians and regulators about the importance of crypto to America’s future.
What is critical, however, is that these conversations aim to create broad consensus (pardon the pun) around crypto.
“We may not be visible,” Lubin said of Consensys’ political machinations, “but we’re certainly doing things.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward