Regulation
JD Vance, Trump’s Vice Presidential Pick, Owns Up to $250,000 Worth of Bitcoin
Photo: GIORGIO VIERAKAMIL KRZACZYNSKI (Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump has has chosen Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his vice-presidential running mateAND like TrumpVance is a crypto-friendly candidate. In a 2022 financial disclosure, Vance said he had between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of Bitcoin holdings through Coinbase.
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Trump has positioned himself as a pro-cryptocurrency candidate ahead of the November general election. Vance, first elected to the Senate in 2022, has championed legislation to overturn a Securities and Exchange Commission rule on banks reporting cryptocurrency as a liability on their balance sheets, an action that President Joe Biden has opposed. Most recently, Politico reports, Vance has authored legislation that seeks to revamping how the United States regulates digital assets.
Neil Roarty, investment platform analyst Stockoliticshe said in an email that it was not surprising to see a slight rise in cryptocurrency markets following Trump’s announcement on Monday that he had chosen Vance as his vice president.
“With Vance sitting alongside Trump in the White House, an outcome that seems increasingly likely, there is a sense that a pro-crypto policy could be the order of the day in 2025,” Roarty said.
A tweet from 2022 from Vance on why the cryptocurrency was gaining traction at the time is also receiving renewed attention this week. And a the video has resurfaced online in which Vance criticizes SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. In the video, Vance says Gensler’s approach to cryptocurrency regulation is the opposite of what it should be. He calls cryptocurrency a tool against government overreach and says he has a significant investment in Bitcoin.
Vance, a 39-year-old Iraq war veteran, was elected to the Senate with Trump’s support and the financial backing of his former boss and ally, Peter Thiel. Vance first met Thiel during his freshman year at Yale Law.
After a nine-month stint at Sidley Austin LLP, Vance moved to San Francisco, where his work as a venture capitalist (and connections to some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful men) would begin to take shape. He worked briefly for Thiel’s Mithril Capital before joining AOL founder Stephen Case’s venture capital firm Revolution in Washington, D.C.
-William Gavin contributed to this article.