Crypto Giggle
Eleanor Terrett, a Fox Business reporter who works on Twitter/X broke the story first. She posted that Larsen’s gift was the sole documented cryptocurrency donation to Harris to date.
Federal Election Commission documents show that Ripple’s co-founder donated 1,754,815.29XRP to the Federal Election Commission on August 14. The donation was valued at approximately $1 million. These funds were transferred to Future Forward PAC, a Democratic Super PAC that aims at electing Harris.
A political action committee is a fundraising group which raises funds to either support or oppose candidates for office, ballot measures, legislation or other political issues. The Future Forward PAC in this instance is a Super PAC. This means that it has unlimited spending and can accept unlimited donations to support Kamala’s candidacy as long as they do not directly coordinate with her campaign. Super PACs have been the subject of much controversy, mainly because they violate campaign contributions restrictions, and hide the real source of their funding from dark money groups. However, the influence of Super PACs on election outcomes is unquestionable.
Open Secrets data shows that Future Forward raised more than $200 million as of August 31. Over the past year, the PAC received donations from former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, venture-capitalist Reid Hoffman and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
Initially, the PAC supported Joe Biden for reelection. However, after Biden announced that he was withdrawing from politics and endorsed Harris’ campaign in November 2023. Larsen contributed $250,000 in November 2023 to Biden’s campaign. To reduce volatility, the PAC signed an agreement with Coinbase Commerce to convert all cryptocurrency contributions into USDC stablecoin.
Crypto Twitter/X reactions to news that a Ripple executive donated to Harris’s campaign were predictably mixed. Eleanor Terrett explained that Larsen’s XRP was not a campaign donation, but money Future Forward will spend to promote Harris and counter Trump’s advertising.
There were also critics who condemned Larsen for his contribution to Democrats, referring back to Biden SEC lawsuits that targeted some of the biggest players in crypto. Some, on the other hand, pointed out that Trump’s SEC was responsible for suing Ripple in 2020, with a $2 billion dollar fine.
The reality of crypto may not be as straightforward as it appears on Twitter/X. The Republican candidate has made many promises, including supporting Bitcoin miners and firing SEC Chair Gary Gensler. He also promised to create a strategic Bitcoin Reserve, stop the development of CBDCs as well as support Bitcoin mining. However, corporate executives have not placed their bets on one horse. Larsen signed a letter in September endorsing Harris as president along with 87 others signatories, including Aaron Levie. Levie is the co-founder of Box and its CEO, Jeremy Stoppelman. Snap Chairman Michael Lynton.
Gene Sperling, a former Ripple Board member who had served as an advisor in Joe Biden’s administration before joining Kamala Harris’ campaign was announced by the media on August 1. His current role may not be related to blockchain or crypto.
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, predicted Gary Gensler would have to resign, regardless of the results. Garlinghouse, speaking at a Seoul press conference about the possible extension of Gary Gensler’s tenure as SEC chair, said: “I will make a gentleman bet this won’t occur.”
Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has yet to explain her stance on cryptocurrencies. She did mention briefly, at a New York City fundraising event on September 22nd that she wanted to “encourage new technologies such as AI and digital assets”. This was her only and first public statement on crypto since becoming a candidate for president. Crypto executives hope.
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