U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer presents U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris with a “golden gavel” after she cast her 32nd tie-breaking vote in the Senate, the most ever cast by a vice president, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, December 5, 2023.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday he believes the Senate can realistically pass a bipartisan bill to regulate cryptocurrencies before the end of the year, giving new hope to an industry stuck in legislative limbo for years.
“Passing legislation this year is entirely possible, even in these divided times,” Schumer said during a virtual town hall event to help raise money for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
Dubbed “Crypto4Harris,” the event brought together billionaire Mark Cuban and New York Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, who is also Schumer’s colleague, as well as Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Stabenow chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, where a bipartisan cryptocurrency bill is under consideration.
Two Democrats running for Senate seats also participated in the event: Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who is running to succeed the retiring Stabenow in Michigan, and Rep. Adam Schiff, the favorite to win a vacant seat in California. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Rep. Wiley Nickel of North Carolina were also on the call.
“Why are we here today? Because we all support Vice President Kamala Harris to be our next president, and we all believe in the future of crypto,” Schumer said.
“My goal on cryptocurrency regulation is this: I want to bring together members from both sides of the Senate… so that we can pass common-sense legislation that helps the United States maintain its status as the most innovative country in the world,” he added.
Schumer’s broad support for cryptocurrencies is nothing new: He joined Republicans earlier this year to roll back regulatory guidelines that the industry deemed too burdensome. But his resounding endorsement of digital currencies on Wednesday went further than many on Capitol Hill expected to hear from him.
“Cryptocurrencies are here to stay no matter what, so Congress needs to get this right,” he said.
Sheila Warren, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, hosted the evening event, the latest in a series of Zoom calls and town hall meetings aimed at raising funds and building support for Harris among different constituencies.
Harris did not participate in the online event, but many members of her party stepped in to reassure the crypto industry as a whole that a potential Harris administration would support creating a regulatory framework for the industry that would help foster innovation at home.
Gillibrand said in a pre-recorded speech that a future Harris administration would “understand” and “facilitate” a “balanced approach” to regulating the industry.
More than 70 House Democrats voted in favor of the 21st Century Financial Innovation and Technology Act, which passed the House in May. It will now head to the Senate.
Schumer has not yet indicated which bills he plans to pursue. But Stabenow’s presence alongside Schumer at Wednesday’s meeting could indicate that Schumer is leaning toward Stabenow’s legislation.
In recent months, the token-loving electoral bloc has emerged as a key player in the 2024 elections, both at the presidential level and in key senatorial races.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has recently made the cryptocurrency sector a major focus in his public speeches on the campaign trail. He also headlined the largest Bitcoin event of the year in Nashville, Tennessee, last month, after spending years dismissing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, saying the tokens are not money and that their value is “based on nothing.”
Harris has yet to formally comment on crypto, but Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Nickel, D-N.C., both told CNBC on the sidelines of this year’s flagship bitcoin conference in Tennessee that they are in direct dialogue with Harris’ campaign team on the topic.
“I think we’re going to hear from Vice President Harris on this soon. And I’m very optimistic that we’re going to have a reset. And I think that’s going to be very important,” Nickel told CNBC. “This issue is not going away. And we need to make sure that we continue to address it in a bipartisan way.”
The race to win favor with the pro-crypto electorate coincides with the industry pouring tens of millions of dollars into key races.
Pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake pledged earlier Wednesday to donate $3 million each to Slotkin and Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is running for a seat in battleground Arizona.
Both are vying for tough Senate seats against Trump-backed candidates — seats that could ultimately decide whether Schumer and his party retain the majority.
Fairshake’s financial support for Democratic candidates in those elections apparently angered leading Republicans “who viewed the industry as an ally, not an adversary,” according to an NBC report.
Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, told CNBC that the “biggest thing” he’s seen in 2024 is that crypto “is not only seen as a more legitimate and important issue,” but that this transformation has also become more bipartisan in nature.
