Kamala Harris softens Democrats’ stance on crypto, winning over some of its VCs

Meanwhile, Silicon Valley is reconsidering her. While many tech figures had turned their backs on Democrats during President Biden’s campaign, around 100 venture capitalists and founders have since pledged their support to Harris.

And it’s perhaps no surprise that, among the 100 or so VCs, founders, and tech leaders who signed a pro-Harris pledge on Wednesday, a number of them happen to be crypto people.

“We are pro-business, pro–American dream, pro-entrepreneurship, and pro-technological progress,” the signatories wrote, in a bid to rally Silicon Valley and the business community away from Donald Trump and JD Vance.

At @svangel we spend our days looking for, investing in, and supporting founders who are building the future. We are pro-business, pro-American Dream, pro-entrepreneurship, and pro-technological progress. In this pivotal moment, we are united in our support for Vice President… pic.twitter.com/HIIkEDTDOb

— Ron Conway (@RonConway) July 31, 2024

Trump has vowed to be the crypto president. As a result, the industry’s heavyweights have lined up to declare their support. Among them: a16z’s cofounders Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and the Winklevoss twins, who founded crypto exchange Gemini. Meanwhile, crypto political action committees have spent over $28.5 million in support of crypto-friendly Republicans—and against skeptical Democrats—in congressional races, according to OpenSecrets analysis of campaign data published as of July 20.  

Here are five crypto VCs who have pledged their support. 

Ron Conway

Conway is managing partner and founder of SV Angel. The fund is an investor in at least 10 crypto firms, including Coinbase, Uniswap, and OpenSea. “I have known Kamala for decades, and she’s been a fighter, a leader, and an advocate for the tech ecosystem since the day we met,” Conway posted on X. He’s also donated almost $450,000 to “Harris for President” as of the end of June, according to federal campaign data. 

Ryan Morrison

As a partner at Founders Circle Capital, Morrison has invested in Robinhood, the retail investing app that offers crypto services. More broadly, the firm is also an investor in digital assets prime brokerage FalconX. 

Rebecca Kaden

Kaden is the first female managing partner of Union Square Ventures. USV has 24 crypto firms in its portfolio, including Coinbase, Blackbird Labs, Dapper Labs, and Polychain Capital. Kaden donated $4,000 to Democratic candidates and committees last year.  

Mark Cuban 

An investor in 20 blockchain companies, it’s no secret that Cuban—worth $5.4 billion—has fantasized about Bitcoin becoming the “global currency.” Among his investments: Arbitrum, Polygon, and DeepSea. Cuban is a staunch Trump critic; he’s questioned the value of Trump’s supposedly pro-business pledge to charge a 10% tariff on all imported goods, and accused Trump University of being a scam, according to an X post.

Me: He ripped off thousands of hard working Americans with Trump University, he put vendors out of business and didn't pay his bills
You: But all business people do that

Me: He didn't want to leave the WH. He called the Ga.Sec of State and asked for 11780 votes. He demanded… https://t.co/bshaHOZBNq

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) June 26, 2024

Reid Hoffman

The LinkedIn cofounder and partner at Greylock has invested in six crypto firms, including Coinbase. In a 2014 blog post, Hoffman called Bitcoin “transformative” and “remarkable.” On Wednesday, he called supporting Harris “an investment in [our] democratic future.”