The Democratic presidential candidate delivered a speech Wednesday outlining her economic policy goals in Pittsburgh.
Posted September 25, 2024 at 5:13 PM EST.
Kamala Harris said Wednesday that she plans to ensure the United States remains “dominant” in emerging technologies such as blockchain, AI and quantum computing, noting that these sectors will “define the next century.” The Democratic presidential candidate made the comments in a highly anticipated speech on her economic priorities at an event hosted by the Economic Club of Pittsburgh on Wednesday afternoon.
“Since our beginning, America’s economic strength has been linked to our industrial strength and it’s the same today,” Harris said, emphasizing that she wanted to ensure that “it’s the America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century.”
In recent days, Harris made her first public remarks on crypto and blockchain since entering the presidential race in July.
At a donor event in Manhattan on Sunday, Harris said that his administration would “encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets, while protecting our consumers and investors.” In an 80-page document detailing his economic projects entitled “A new path forward for the middle class” which was released on Wednesday, Harris only referenced digital assets once, with the exact same statement she made in her remarks on Sunday.
Although Harris has not addressed crypto previously this week, the Biden-Harris administration has been perceived as hostile to crypto, especially given the numerous enforcement actions taken against crypto companies in recent years by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Exchange Commission headed by Gary Gensler.
The crypto community’s reaction to Harris’ comments on Sunday was mixed, with some writing on offered by Biden. Harris in the past.
Unlike Harris, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has firmly positioned himself as a champion of the crypto industry, despite having been skeptical of the industry several years ago.
In his own economic policy speech earlier this month, Trump said he wanted to make the United States the crypto and bitcoin capital of the world,” although he did not give specific details on how he would achieve this. In July, Trump delivered the opening speech At the Blockchain 2024 conference in Nashville, he floated the idea of creating a national Bitcoin reserve and said he would fire Gensler as SEC chairman on the first day of his presidency. Trump has also released a series of NFTs, and most recently was promote a DeFi lending project called World Financial Liberty run by his sons.
Polymarket’s Latest Betting Market Shows Punters give a slight edge on Harris’ chances of winning the presidential election over Trump, 50% to 49%.