Ohio Senator JD Vance, who won his position in 2022, is seen as a strong boost to Donald Trump’s crypto industry-related promises.
The usual game of politics is full of sudden changes of heart as the players strive to please as many voters as possible and secure support from more powerful politicians.
However, this time in the US, the playbook seems to favor the crypto asset industry, which is now cheering the appointment of Senator JD Vance as Donald Trump’s running mate and potential future vice president of the world’s largest economy.
As Trump has radically changed his view on bitcoin (BTC) this year, he is gaining support and raising extra millions from the crypto industry for his campaign. Meanwhile, Vance has changed his opinion on Trump.
In 2016, when he was a venture capitalist (VC) at Peter Thiel-co-founded Mithril Capital, Vance called Trump “an idiot” and later described him as “cultural heroin” leading “the white working class to a very dark place.” However, Vance started supporting Trump during his presidency in 2017-2021, while Trump, during Vance’s campaign in 2022, said that “JD is kissing my ass, he wants my support so bad.”
So, why is the US crypto industry so excited about this partnership in the elections, which was officially announced two days after the failed assassination attempt on Trump on July 13th?
jokes aside JD is a great choice, former VC, and very good on crypto. Trump 2.0 is signaling a pro tech, pro silicon valley, pro american dynamism outlook.
undefined nic carter (@nic__carter) July 15, 2024
Not only is Vance’s background in the VC industry seen as favorable for tech industries such as bitcoin and crypto, but his election campaign, which received $10 million from Thiel, also featured vocal support from the crypto industry.
As a Senator, the Republican not only criticized Joe Biden’s administration's crypto policies but also introduced his own bills.
A vocal critic of the SEC with a BTC portfolio
For example, last year, Vance opposed attempts to impose tax reporting requirements on crypto firms. He criticized federal regulators for “advancing the agenda of the far left at the expense of their core mission,” stating that “regulatory bias and misconduct have gone unreported, as institutions have feared retribution.”
Together with two other Senators, he introduced the Financial Regulatory Accountability Act in July 2023 to address these issues. The same year, he introduced another bill to protect crypto customers from being cut off by banks.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), known for its multiple enforcement actions against crypto industry players, has also been scrutinized by Vance on multiple occasions.
He was among the senators who “raised concerns” over an enforcement case in which the SEC used false statements to freeze the assets and bank accounts of a crypto platform, DEBT Box. The Republican also joined other senators in criticizing the SEC for its “errant announcement” that it had approved spot-BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January 2024, which led to significant movements in BTC and other crypto prices.
Additionally, in a talk that resurfaced after Vance’s appointment this week, he said that SEC’s boss Gary Gensler “wants to inject way too much politics into the business of securities in the US.”
“The approach Gary has taken in regulating blockchain and crypto seems to be the exact opposite of what it should be,” Vance said.
👀👀👀 NEW VIDEO
undefined Bill Hughes : wchughes.eth 🦊 (@BillHughesDC) February 27, 2024
Ohio Senator JD Vance on Gensler:
He is way way way too political in his regulation of securities.
He has it backwards when wanting to ban useful tokens and seemingly not caring about those without specific utility.
Sen. Vance sees blockchain as key to… pic.twitter.com/yKoNmk4Bm4
In June, Vance reportedly started circulating draft legislation to offer an alternative to the current chaotic and unfriendly regulatory crypto regime in the US. The aim was to address how the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulate the nascent market, and the draft was deemed more friendly than a separate effort by the House.
Moreover, Vance, who turns 40 on August 2nd, seems to be the first candidate in the presidential race who owns, or at least has owned, a crypto asset. Per his latest disclosures in 2022, the Republican had $100,000-250,000 in BTC, stored on the Coinbase exchange.
The role of a vice president
If Trump wins and Vance becomes his vice president, how might things play out for the crypto industry?
Dylan Bane, Enterprise Research Analyst at Messari, a cryptoasset market intelligence company, reminds us that presidents often delegate leadership on secondary policy objectives to the vice president.
“While Trump has embraced a pro-crypto platform in recent months, he likely has limited knowledge of the intricacies of blockchain technology and what comprehensive digital asset legislation should look like. Crypto is a secondary issue for the Trump campaign, making it an ideal policy area for Vance to take the lead on,” Bane wrote in Messari’s newsletter this week.
However, the crypto industry should remember that politicians are known for their repeated failures to keep promises made during election campaigns, sudden changes of heart, and statements that might contradict their actions in real life. For example, Vance is known for his hard line on immigration and his call for "large-scale deportations" despite being married to an Indian American woman – the daughter of immigrants.
In either case, prediction markets, with more than $264 million in bets placed, now put Donald Trump’s chances of winning the election in November at 70%, compared with Biden’s 18%. This, in turn, also strengthens hope for Vance and the cryptoasset industry. However, the race is still on.
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