Regulation
Donald Trump and JD Vance are pro-crypto running mates
“The Claman Countdown” panelists Sam Brownback and Dennis Kucinich react to former President Trump’s special announcement at the RNC.
Call them the crypto candidates.
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump announced Monday via his social media platform Truth that he has chosen Ohio Senator and former tech venture capitalist JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate.
JD Vance gestures as he speaks during the Ohio Republican Party’s election night reception in Columbus, Ohio, on November 8, 2022. – Republican JD Vance, the bestselling author of “Hillbilly Elegy” endorsed by former President Donald Trump, with (Photo by PAUL VERNON/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Trump, who has made promoting digital asset innovation a key part of his campaign platform, praised Vance for his “highly successful business career in technology and finance” and his fight for American workers.
ELON MUSK WELCOMES TRUMP’S VP PICK, JD VANCE
Vance, however, brings his own crypto credibility to the presidential race. Since his election to the Senate in 2022, he has introduced and voted for pro-crypto legislation, is a holder of the first digital currency, Bitcoin, and has been a vocal critic of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Genlser’s regulatory crackdown on digital assets.
“…JD is a great choice, former VC, and very good at crypto,” Castle Island Ventures founder Nic Carter said in a statement. job on his X account. “Trump 2.0 signals a perspective of pro-tech, pro-Silicon Valley and pro-American dynamism.”
Vance, 39, comes from working-class Ohio, served in the Marines, worked his way through college and Yale Law School before working as a venture capitalist under PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
He is also a best-selling author. His 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” provided a deep insight into middle America’s economic plight and helped explain the populism that drove Donald Trump’s rise as a national politician and president that year. He and Trump were not always allies; Vance was initially a free-marketeer, a libertarian and a critic of Trump’s policies.
Former President Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, is ushered off stage during a rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Getty Images)
But his views have become more populist over the years, as he has turned to the MAGA world and Trump has endorsed him for the Ohio Senate seat.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES OHIO SENATOR JD VANCE AS HIS 2024 CHOICE
Vance is now the first millennial to run for president for a major party, and he brings the politics of that generation to the race, which includes cryptocurrency. Vance voted to repeal the agency’s controversial staff accounting bulletin, known as SAB 121, which prohibits certain banks and brokerages from holding digital assets, which passed both houses of Congress by simple majorities in May before ultimately being rejected by President Biden.
In February, Vance wrote a letter to SEC Chairman Gensler, alongside a handful of fellow Republican senators, raising concerns about an enforcement case against crypto company Debt Box, where a judge found that SEC lawyers used false statements to justify freezing assets and bank accounts associated with the company.
“It is unconscionable that a federal agency could act in such an unethical and unprofessional manner,” Vance wrote. “…trust is damaged and your mission compromised by incidents like the DEBT Box affair.”
Vance has also made statements criticizing Gensler for his regulation of crypto and blockchain technology, saying he wants to inject “way too much” politics into the securities industry, calling his approach to crypto and blockchain regulation “the exact opposite of what it should be.”
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) addresses the Turning Point conservative grassroots convention on June 16, 2024, at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan. (JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Last year, Vance introduced a bill in the Senate called the Financial Regulatory Accountability Act, which aims to prevent federal banking regulators from blocking access to banking services for disadvantaged industries, such as gun manufacturers and crypto companies.
In response to Canada’s finance minister freezing the bank accounts of Canadians protesting mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations in 2022, Vance touted crypto as a solution.
“This is why cryptocurrency is taking off,” he said in a job on X. “The regime will cut off your access to banking services if you have the wrong policy.”
Others in the $2 trillion crypto industry are hoping a winning Trump-Vance ticket will prove a hurdle for anti-crypto lawmakers, such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who touted building an “anti-crypto army” as part of her reelection campaign.
“Senator Warren’s anti-crypto army would be no match for a Trump-Vance presidency,” Sam Lyman, director of public policy at Riot Platforms, told FOX Business. “This is the dream ticket for anyone who believes in self-sovereignty and the freedom to transact.”
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
Meanwhile, Trump himself is set to be a keynote speaker at the largest Bitcoin conference next week in Nashville, where he is expected to outline his plans to defend blockchain technology, the right to self-custody digital assets and prevent the creation of a so-called central bank digital currency, or CBDC.
Trump’s cryptocurrency adviser, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is reportedly being considered for a position in Trump’s cabinet, will speak at the event. It’s not yet known whether Vance will make an appearance.