Trumps running mate JD Vance: a more pure Crypto supporter

Original | Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )

Author: Azuma ( @azuma_eth )

On July 15 local time, former US President Donald Trump announced at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that Ohio Senator James David Vance (J.D. Vance) will run as his vice presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

Later, the Republican National Convention formally approved JD Vance as the Republican vice presidential candidate.

As JD Vances nomination was approved, many celebrities, including Elon Musk (who had previously stated that he would support the Republican Party), publicly expressed their congratulations.

For users in the cryptocurrency industry, JD Vance’s name may be more or less unfamiliar, but compared to Trump, who is still suspected of temporarily currying favor with cryptocurrency users just to win votes, JD Vance seems to be a more pure cryptocurrency supporter.

• Odaily Note: Arthur Hayes recently wrote an article questioning that Trump does not really support cryptocurrency, but is just overdrawing his promise to get more votes.

The main promoter of crypto-friendly bills

JD Vance was born in 1984. At the age of 39, he has only two years of political experience, but now he is expected to become the second youngest vice president in American history (second only to Breckenridge).

In addition to being a politician, JD Vance is also an author (he has published the book Hillbilly Elegy) and a venture investor focusing on the technology field (he has worked at Mithril Capital, a venture capital firm owned by Peter Thiel), and cryptocurrency is one of the industries that JD Vance focuses on.

According to the American political news website Politico, as early as 2022, JD Vance was successfully elected as a federal senator from Ohio for his friendly stance on cryptocurrency . At that time, JD Vance actively advocated a more relaxed regulatory approach to digital asset regulation.

In May of this year, JD Vance voted in favor of the Senates vote to repeal the SAB-121 accounting standard, which was extremely opposed by the cryptocurrency industry.

Last month, Politico reported again that JD Vance had drafted a bill on reforming the regulation of digital assets, which is expected to completely change the way the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulate the cryptocurrency market.

Although there are some relatively cryptocurrency-friendly political forces in the Democratic camp that are currently promoting similar bills, such as Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow and Senators Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand, an unnamed cryptocurrency lobbyist said that JD Vances draft is more conducive to industry development than the bill being promoted by the Democrats because it will adopt a simpler approach to determine which digital assets the SEC will regulate, rather than the CFTC - the cryptocurrency industry generally believes that the SEC has too much power over the market.

The lobbyists final assessment was, People definitely dont want to start over, but at this point, JD Vances bill is much better.

Currently, JD Vances bill has received the support of 71 Democrats in the House of Representatives. According to people familiar with the relevant developments, JD Vances team is expected to formally propose the bill this month.

Bitcoin holders

In addition to being active at the policy level, JD Vance himself was once a Bitcoin holder.

In October 2023, JD Vance submitted his mandatory financial disclosure report for 2022 as a senator. The report showed that as of 2022, JD Vance owned between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of Bitcoin and held these assets through Coinbase.

In addition, JD Vance also opened accounts with brokerage firms Robinhood and Charles Schwab, but did not disclose specific holdings details.

As of now, the latest vice presidential candidate has not yet filed his 2023 financial disclosure report , but his net worth is estimated to be at least $5 million and at most $10.5 million.

Selected Historical Statements

JD Vance has publicly mentioned cryptocurrencies many times in previous public events.

As early as 2022, when Canadian authorities blocked the bank accounts of a group of truck drivers who were protesting against epidemic control, JD Vance mentioned cryptocurrency for the first time: This is why cryptocurrency is booming. If you have the wrong political views, the regime will cut off your access to banking services.

In February of this year, when the SEC launched an enforcement action against the cryptocurrency mining company Debt Box, JD Vance and several other congressmen jointly issued a letter to question the SEC.

In February of this year, JD Vance slammed the current SEC Chairman Gary Genslers excessive regulation of cryptocurrencies at Remedy Fest, a private conference jointly organized by Y Combinator and Bloomberg.

JD Vance mentioned at the time: “ I think the worst candidate for (SEC) is Gary Gensler … He wants to inject too much politics into the actual business of U.S. securities… Gary’s approach to regulating blockchain and cryptocurrency is completely opposite to the way it should be. ”

In summary, combined with JD Vance’s past remarks and actions, you can clearly sense his long-term positive attitude towards cryptocurrency. Although we cannot rule out the suspicion that JD Vance’s actions are excessive marketing in order to canvass votes, for now, he is the best candidate that the cryptocurrency industry can expect.