Former President Donald Trump is making a push to appeal to so-called “crypto” voters this election cycle, promising to unveil a plan that would turn the U.S. into the “crypto capital of the planet.” Far from dabbling in the digital assets space, Trump has made cryptocurrency a large part of his campaign. He recently unveiled the latest additions to his NFT trading cards, and he and his sons have been intimately involved in various cryptocurrency projects. Even Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has signaled that she would back initiatives to help grow the industry—part of a broader intra-party break from hardline skeptics such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren and reluctant critics such as Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler.
But do “crypto” enthusiasts actually make up a significant voting bloc such that they could help decide who wins in November? Ravi Sarathy, Northeastern University professor of international business and strategy and author of “Enterprise Strategy for Blockchain,” says that regulators have been softening their position on cryptocurrencies of late, which might lead more Americans on both sides of the political spectrum to dabble in digital currencies. In theory, that would create a larger constituency of voters with a shared interest around decentralized finance.
