Cryptocurrency investors and industry leaders are organizing a fundraiser to encourage Vice President Kamala Harris to adopt a more lenient regulatory approach to the cryptocurrency sector. Scheduled for September 13 in Washington, the event aims to raise at least $100,000 for the Democratic presidential nominee.
This grassroots fundraiser will occur amid the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus conferences, aiming to attract a diverse array of donors. Ticket prices for the event range from $500 to $5,000, according to Cleve Mesidor, founder of the National Policy Network of Women of Color in Blockchain and one of the event’s organizers.
Although the fundraising goal might seem modest compared to the hundreds of millions Harris has amassed since becoming the Democratic presidential candidate, it underscores the industry’s preference for her over Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has also sought to attract substantial crypto donations with favorable policy promises.
The organizers of the event, including Tiffany Smith, co-chair of the Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Working Group at the law firm WilmerHale, and Rahilla Zafar, a crypto founder with a background in artificial intelligence, hope that a Harris presidency would relax the stringent regulations imposed on the crypto industry by the Securities and Exchange Commission during the Biden administration. Smith and Mesidor are coordinating this fundraiser in their personal capacities.
“Why not seize on the first fundraiser — which there will be many others — to actually make a statement about what crypto is for Democrats as a potentially new administration contemplates how do they look at this?” Mesidor remarked. She expressed hope that the event would foster discussions on how a potential Harris administration could encourage crypto innovation and improve access to capital for people of color.
“We wanted to make sure that with the change in the presidential nominee for the Democrats, that we were supportive and we came together to help her understand the importance of this industry,” added WilmerHale’s Smith.
The group organizing the fundraiser is not officially affiliated with the Harris campaign, which has not commented on this event. However, a new group named Crypto4Harris has also emerged, planning further fundraisers for Harris, featuring speakers like billionaire Mark Cuban and financier Anthony Scaramucci.
While Harris has not publicly stated her position on cryptocurrency, her campaign team has met with major crypto firms like Coinbase and Ripple. These and other significant crypto companies have been contributing to pro-crypto candidates in congressional races across both parties through super political action committees. At a recent event at the Democratic National Convention, Brian Nelson, a senior adviser for the Harris campaign, indicated that Harris would support the growth of emerging technologies, a statement many in the crypto industry viewed positively.
“(Harris) has this golden opportunity to really lay out a plan to sway a lot of these voters from the crypto industry,” said Zafar.