Regulation
Donald Trump and JD Vance are pro-crypto running mates
‘The Claman Countdown’ panelists Sam Brownback and Dennis Kucinich weigh in on former President Trump’s special announcement at the RNC.
Let’s call them the cryptocurrency candidates.
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump announced Monday via his social media platform Truth that he has chosen Ohio Sen. and former tech venture capitalist J.D. Vance as his vice presidential running mate.
J.D. Vance gestures as he speaks during the Ohio Republican Party election vigil reception in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 8, 2022. – Republican J.D. Vance, author of the best-selling “Hillbilly Elegy” endorsed by former President Donald Trump, w (Photo by PAUL VERNON/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Trump, who has made promoting digital innovation a key part of his campaign, praised Vance for his “highly successful business career in technology and finance” and his fight for American workers.
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Vance, however, brings his crypto street cred to the presidential race. Since being elected to the Senate in 2022, he has introduced and voted for pro-crypto legislation, is a holder of the number one digital currency, Bitcoin, and has been a staunch critic of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Genlser’s regulatory crackdown on digital assets.
“…JD is a great choice, ex-VC, and very good at cryptocurrencies,” Castle Island Ventures founder Nic Carter said in a send to his X account. “Trump 2.0 is signaling a dynamic, pro-tech, pro-Silicon Valley, pro-America outlook.”
Vance, 39, comes from a working-class Ohio background, served in the Marines, paid his way through college and attended Yale Law School before starting a venture capitalist career under PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
He is also a best-selling author. His 2016 autobiography, “Hillbilly Elegy,” took a deep look at the economic plight of middle America and helped explain the populism behind Donald Trump’s rise as a national politician and president that year. He and Trump were not always allies; Vance was initially a free-marketeer, a libertarian, and a critic of Trump’s brand of politics.
Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, is rushed off the stage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images / Getty Images)
However, over the years, his views have become more populist, as he has become more in tune with the MAGA movement and Trump has endorsed him for the Ohio Senate seat.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES OHIO SENATOR JD VANCE AS HIS 2024 RUNNING MATE
Vance is now the first millennial to run for president of a major party, and he’s bringing that generation’s politics to the race, which includes cryptocurrency. Vance voted to repeal the agency’s controversial staff accounting bulletin, known as SAB 121, which restricts certain banks and broker dealers from holding digital assets, which passed both houses of Congress by simple majorities in May before ultimately being vetoed by President Biden.
In February, Vance and a handful of fellow GOP senators wrote a letter to SEC Chairman Gensler, expressing concerns about an enforcement case against cryptocurrency firm Debt Box, in which a judge found that SEC lawyers had used false statements to justify freezing assets and bank accounts associated with the company.
“It is unacceptable that a federal agency… can operate in such an unethical and unprofessional manner,” Vance wrote. “… trust is undermined and your mission compromised by incidents like the DEBT Box case.”
Vance has also issued statements harshly criticizing Gensler for his regulation of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, saying he wants to inject “too much” politics into the securities business, calling his approach to regulating cryptocurrencies and blockchain “the exact opposite of what it should be.”
Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) speaks at the Turning Point Conservative People’s Convention on June 16, 2024 at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan. (JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Last year, Vance introduced a bill in the Senate called the Financial Regulatory Accountability Act, which seeks to prevent federal banking regulators from blocking disadvantaged industries, such as weapons manufacturers and cryptocurrency companies, from accessing banking services.
In response to the Canadian finance minister freezing the bank accounts of Canadians protesting the 2022 COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Vance promoted cryptocurrency as a solution.
“This is why cryptocurrencies are taking off,” he said in a send on X. “The regime will prevent you from accessing the banks if you have the wrong political ideas.”
Others in the $2 trillion cryptocurrency industry are hoping the Trump-Vance victory will be a stumbling block for anti-cryptocurrency lawmakers like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has promoted the creation of an “anti-crypto army” as part of her re-election campaign.
“Senator Warren’s ‘anti-crypto army’ would be no match for a Trump-Vance presidency,” Sam Lyman, director of public policy at Riot Platforms, told FOX Business. “This is the ticket to dreams for anyone who believes in self-sovereignty and the freedom to transact.”
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Meanwhile, Trump himself is expected to be a keynote speaker at the world’s largest Bitcoin conference next week in Nashville, where he is expected to lay out his plans to support blockchain technology, the right to self-custody of digital assets, and prevent the creation of a so-called central bank digital currency, or CBDC.
Trump’s cryptocurrency adviser, former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is said to be under consideration for a position in Trump’s cabinet, will speak at the event. It’s unclear whether Vance will make an appearance.