In the wake of President Biden withdrawing from the presidential race, the last week has brought a reset of the entire election. Vice President Harris, endorsed by President Biden to be the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party, has already signaled that change is afoot in key policy areas like national security and antitrust. She also has the chance to change the party’s position on another topic: Crypto regulation, which has become surprisingly partisan in recent months.
We suggest the Vice President should view crypto as another area that is ripe for a Democratic party reset. Just as she is making “we are not going back” the core theme of her campaign, she cannot go back to the Biden Administration’s approach to crypto.
For the past two years, the Biden Administration has alternated between ignoring crypto and waging a fire-and-brimstone campaign of maximum hostility. Given that approximately 20% of registered voters and approximately one third of all voters of color have owned crypto, neither stance made much sense. It makes even less sense now that Donald Trump and the Republican Party have made crypto part of their official party platform. At this point, the Biden Administration’s approach to crypto amounts to an exercise in political self-harm.
Changing course on crypto would not require Herculean effort. Take it from us. Both of us are progressive Democrats with longstanding experience in crypto, the government, and non-profit sectors, and here we offer a few easy steps Vice President Harris can undertake to make a crypto reset part of her campaign.
First, take the industry seriously. In the recent past, Democratic-aligned commentators, and even Biden Administration regulators, expressed a supremely confident view that crypto would disappear in a few months. This is like screaming at the sun to stop rising in the morning. Rather than retreat to such self-deception, The Harris campaign should take the simple step of accepting that crypto will endure and crafting policy to reflect that.
Part of this should entail Vice President Harris encouraging future Administration and campaign personnel to learn about crypto: Launch an advisory council on crypto and hold a roundtable with crypto executives and ordinary users during the campaign. Even better, download a wallet and tinker with the technology for firsthand experience! When it comes to crypto, using is the fastest path to understanding.
Second, commit to working with the industry. The U.S. growth of this industry is constrained by a lack of regulatory clarity, and many industry actors are clamoring to be within the regulatory perimeter. Bring us in! But do so in a way that acknowledges both crypto’s unique challenges AND its unique opportunities. Vice President Harris should pledge to appoint new regulators at agencies like the SEC who don’t dismiss crypto, and who actually know something about it. (Teaching a course as an adjunct professor while never downloading a crypto wallet is not actual expertise.) Rhetoric also matters; the current Administration’s oft-dismissive, and even mocking, tone about crypto is (or, should be) beneath public office. Simply put, campaign for president on ending the campaign against crypto.
Third, embrace nuance. Recognize that crypto doesn’t fit cleanly into existing regulatory or statutory perimeters and needs to be addressed thoughtfully. Efforts to jam crypto into existing securities, banking, or commodities regulatory regimes have all failed. Other countries and jurisdictions, including the EU, UK, and Japan, have made progress by accepting that crypto really is unique technology that demands unique regulations. A Harris Administration, starting with the campaign, needs to be the first American presidency to accept that global wisdom. Further, understand that crypto is not just financial technology. From decentralized social media to decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePin) and even intersections with AI and compute, crypto is far more than just a financial tool. Regulation of crypto therefore needs to embrace this diversity of usage and not simply pigeonhole it into a financial regulatory box.
Finally, champion crypto’s unabashedly pro-American impact. Keeping the industry in America is critical to national security and dollar dominance. America has been the home of great technological innovation ever since Fulton piloted his steamboat down the Hudson River, and it is critical that America continue to be the heart of crypto innovation. Do not take the government’s approach to the semiconductor industry, which we have been struggling to remedy in recent years. It’s easier to just keep an industry alive in America than raise it back from the dead, always.
The Democrats’ new standard bearer has a chance to rebrand the party as pro-innovation, pro-consumer, and pro-technology. Signaling that crypto is an issue important to the campaign, in the ways outlined above or others, will go a long way. Vice President Harris, all eyes- whether laser or otherwise- are on you. This is your chance to demonstrate once and for all that technology is not partisan, despite efforts by some to make it so, and to resuscitate longstanding ties between Democrats and tech in the pivotal weeks before we all vote. This is your chance to blaze a new path forward to a brighter tomorrow.
Sheila Warren is the CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, and Justin Slaughter is the policy director at Paradigm. The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
