The final stop on the America Loves Crypto tour took place yesterday in Washington, D.C., as the country heads into the 2024 election. Speakers including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, ConSensys CEO Joseph Lubin, and Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-NC) addressed a full capacity crowd at the Black Cat music venue.
The speakers largely agreed on one idea: the importance of supporting cryptocurrencies in the United States through bipartisan cooperation.
Reps. Brian Armstrong and Nickel appeared on stage together and said they believe it is important to sustain and foster cryptocurrency innovation in the United States.
In the case of nickel in particular, this importance appears to be based not just on faith in the technology, but also on the fact that 20% of American adults own some form of cryptocurrency — a voting bloc that believes nickels “have the ability to influence elections.”
Nickel added: “If you want to get something done in Washington, it’s really important to do it in a bipartisan way. If you politicize the issue of one party getting into crypto and the other party getting into crypto, you’re going to poison the well in Washington for 10 years.”
Since Biden took office in 2020, his administration’s SEC, DoJ, and DoE (Department of Energy) officials have introduced a number of unwelcome regulatory hurdles. What’s notable is that Nickel’s support for crypto signals a shift in attitude from historically hostile Democrats.
“I started coming to D.C. five years ago, and when I first got here, most people didn’t even know what cryptocurrency was,” Armstrong said. “One member of Congress said to me, ‘Isn’t this just a video game or something?’ After they figured it out over the years, the conversation completely changed. Now, everyone knows what cryptocurrency is, we’re the queen of the ball, it’s the topic on everyone’s lips.”
But one attendee, an executive at a prominent financial institution who requested anonymity, reflected on the development of cryptocurrency political activism and the Democratic Party’s lack of will.
In particular, the administration believes the Biden administration’s veto of a bill that would overturn SAB 121, which if signed into law would allow highly regulated financial institutions to hold custody of digital assets, was a major wake-up call.
They pointed out that despite the cryptocurrency industry raising huge amounts of money for campaign contributions, it still carries a strong stigma and that policymakers do not give due respect to this single-issue constituency.
The America Loves Crypto tour focused on combating stigma by blending live music with grassroots community building. Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, aka The Chainsmokers, closed the event, entertaining the crowd with classic hits, unreleased material, and most notably, a shout-out to “F$*# Gary Gesnler.” The Chainsmokers themselves are no strangers to crypto, having founded the Mantis Venture Capital fund in 2020, which focuses on technology and crypto.
Many who attended the America Loves Crypto tour, which visited Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., were hoping that the more than 1.4 million Stand With Crypto supporters across the country would show their muscle in November as a decisive factor.