O’Leary Ventures President Kevin O’Leary discusses the ‘weak’ July jobs report and Trump’s remarks on cryptocurrencies.
Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is actively trying to repair its rocky relationship with the $2 trillion cryptocurrency industry with the help of a current senior White House official and one who just left the administration to help her to take the White House in November, FOX Business has learned.
National Economic Council head Lael Brainard, one of the Biden administration’s top economists, and Anita Dunn, who will leave her position as a senior aide to President Biden to advise a pro-Harris super PAC, will participate in a high-profile Zoom meeting hosted Monday morning by California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, which will include major cryptocurrency industry players and members of the Harris campaign, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.
White House deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed is also expected to take part in the call, these people say. The meeting is designed to help Harris, as she seeks votes and money from the burgeoning crypto community, reshape her image as an anti-crypto politician following the Biden administration’s years-long crackdown on the digital asset sector.
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Lael Brainard speaks during an interview in Washington, DC, on November 14, 2022. | Getty Images
“Representative Khanna is clearly trying to neutralize the crazy left-side faction of Democrats who are letting Republicans get away with this issue as election winners,” an industry official who wished to remain anonymous told FOX Business.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, speaks at an “End Fossil Fuel” rally near the U.S. Capitol, June 29, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Khanna’s meeting, reported for the first time via X by FOX BusinessIt comes as members of the Harris campaign have held their own meetings with organizations and industry leaders to discuss concerns about the current administration and a path forward.
A White House official and a press representative for the Harris campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
With around 50 million Americans invested in some form of digital assets, both presidential candidates are keeping an eye on the sector for contributions and electoral votes. Republican candidate Donald Trump was the first to engage with the cryptocurrency world earlier this year, seeking to take advantage of the Biden administration’s aggressive regulatory agenda that has angered many top players.
Last weekend, he headlined the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, drawing thousands of cryptocurrency enthusiasts who cheered loudly when he promised to make America “the crypto capital of the planet” and fire the president of Securities and Exchange Exchange Commission Gary Gensler “on day one” if he could do it. re-elected to the White House. Trump announced that he has raised more than $25 million from cryptocurrency donors since May, when he began publicly embracing the industry and accepting crypto campaign donations.
Ahead of Trump’s appearance in Nashville, 14 Democratic House members and a handful of candidates sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee and Harris urging the party to take a friendlier approach to digital assets. North Carolina Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel, who signed the letter and spoke at the Bitcoin Conference, confirmed to FOX Business that he was directly involved in encouraging the Harris campaign to embrace a “crypto reset.”
Former Republican presidential candidate President Trump gestures at the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville on July 27, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Wurm/File photo/Reuters Photo)
According to conference organizers, Harris was invited to the Nashville conference but declined to attend. He has yet to give a definitive position on what he thinks of cryptocurrency, and his campaign aides appear to be doing most of the work. This is one of the many reasons why he faces an uphill battle to gain support in the cryptocurrency world.
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“You can’t burn bridges for 4 years and expect to rebuild them with words alone,” Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, said in a post on X on Sunday. “We won’t fall for any bluffs. And we we will not be influenced by what you say. We will only consider what you do.”
Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini has been sued by the Gensler SEC for allegedly selling unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency through its lending platform.
“It is no surprise that, after witnessing President Trump’s extraordinary success on Bitcoin Nashville, Kamala Harris, as she has on many other issues, is making a desperate 180-degree turn at the last minute to appear pro-crypto,” he said the Republican senator from Tennessee. Bill Hagerty told FOX Business. Haggerty is one of the most pro-crypto politicians who also spoke at the Bitcoin Conference.
“The Republican Party is the party of crypto,” he added, “and no amount of desperate efforts from Kamala Harris will change that.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on April 26, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Bonnie Cash-Pool/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Bouncing Gensler — or Harris promising to do so as Trump did in Nashville — would help loosen relations between Harris and the industry, although the odds are low, political advisers say. Gensler is a staunch ally of Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of the most powerful lawmakers on economic matters. Warren endorsed Harris for president and hosted her first fundraiser in Massachusetts on Saturday, while Trump attended the Bitcoin Conference.
Like Gensler, Warren is a cryptocurrency skeptic. And if Harris wins in November and Warren retains his seat, he could have a big say in key economic positions, such as who will be the next head of the SEC. Warren is being challenged by pro-cryptocurrency lawyer John Deaton, who aligns himself with the Republican Party.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, June 13, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images/Getty Images)
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Monday’s meeting hosted by Khanna is the second such event in the last two months. In July, she organized a confabulation with the help of pro-crypto billionaire tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who openly criticized Trump’s economic policies. Dunn, the former Biden aide, was the White House representative at the meeting, where she heard industry concerns about the administration’s approach to cryptocurrencies and many complaints about Gensler. Cuban called on Biden to fire SEC chief.
Mark Cuban attends a basketball game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena on November 25, 2023 in Los Angeles. (Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images/Getty Images)
FOX Business has learned that Monday’s guest list includes Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen, who have been staunch critics of the Biden administration’s regulatory crackdown. Ripple has been fighting the Gensler SEC in court over a high-profile lawsuit filed during the Trump years but continued by the Biden White House. The lawsuit alleges that the company failed to record sales of its crypto token XRP, which it was selling to investors to build its platform. Also present at the virtual meeting will be Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital and Trump’s former communications director, now a major critic of the former president.
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“I look forward to seeing what the next few weeks bring for a new beginning in the industry, ensuring cryptocurrency remains bipartisan and our combined efforts to ensure Donald Trump does not return to the White House,” Scaramucci told FOX Business. “I am proud to be part of these efforts.”