Ethereum
Ethereum Co-Founder Warns Against Voting Only For ‘Pro-Crypto’ People
Buterin’s post comes as Donald Trump, who has positioned himself as the pro-crypto presidential candidate, rallies his party members at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, and one day later Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have told Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) employees that they plan to make significant donations to political action committees supporting Donald Trump campaign.
In an episode of “The Ben & Marc Show,” In an interview with The Guardian, Horowitz said that the Biden administration, in the form of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, has “fought” them every step of the way using “very nefarious means.”
“They’ve sued over 30 of our companies, I think,” Horowitz added. “They lose almost all of their cases, but the problem is when you’re a startup, you don’t have the money to fight the U.S. government, and so they’re kind of destroying the industry that way.”
Fairshake, a super PAC backed by the largest cryptocurrency companies, is now one of the biggest spending PACs this election cycle. Of the $160 million in total contributions it has raised, 94% can be traced to just four companies: Ripple, Andreesen Horowitz, Coinbase and Jump Crypto.
“There is a particular style of ‘crypto-friendliness’ common to authoritarian governments that we should be wary of. The best example is, predictably, modern Russia,” Buterin added. a coder born in Russia who built Ethereum in his late teens.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, as well as cryptocurrency industry leaders like Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, have also endorsed Trump.
Technologists, cryptocurrency industry executives and venture capitalists gathered in San Francisco in early June to discuss paid up to $300,000 per ticket to join a fundraiser for Trump that ultimately raised over $12 million.
“In particular, by publicly giving the impression that you support ‘pro-crypto’ candidates simply because they are ‘pro-crypto,’ you help create an incentive gradient where politicians eventually figure out that all they need to get your support is to support ‘crypto,’” continued Buterin, who is known for periodically publishing longer essays opining on existential threats to the broader ecosystem.
Buterin did not name any political candidates or people who have chosen to support them in his message.
Trump, who launched his latest collection of non-fungible tokens on the Solana blockchain in April, made increasingly optimistic crypto comments.
He is accept digital currency donations and has pledged to defend the rights of those who choose to self-custody their cryptocurrencies, meaning they don’t rely on a centralized entity like Coinbase to hold their tokens and instead do so in personal crypto wallets, which are sometimes beyond the reach of the Internal Revenue Service. Trump also pledged at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington in May to keep Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts., and “his henchmen” away from bitcoin holders.
Meanwhile, after a meeting with bitcoiners at Mar-a-Lago with a dozen mining executives who promised him money and votes, Trump said that all future bitcoins will be minted in the United States, if he returns to the White House.
On Monday, the Republican presidential candidate added Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance to his vice presidential ticket — a move seen by many as a clear win for the crypto industry. Vance has advocated for looser regulation of crypto and revealed in 2022 that he personally holds Bitcoin.
This is in stark contrast to the Joe Biden White House, which has been seen as tough on cryptocurrencies. Under Biden, the SEC has stepped up its enforcement on the sector, and even in the absence of strict rules from Congress, the US has proven to be one of the most active countries in enforcing sanctions and legal measures against crypto companies.
The angrier the crypto industry got at the SEC for arresting and prosecuting them, the more people like Vance saw an opportunity to take a stand on the opposite side of a crypto-skeptical Biden administration.
However, the perception that Biden is anti-crypto and Trump is pro-crypto worries some Biden allies enough to bring their case directly to senior White House officials.
Trump is scheduled to headline the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 27.