Cryptocurrency heats up as Kamala Harris secures $1M from Ripple’s Chris Larsen | Wilnesh News

SAN FRANCISCO — Cryptocurrency companies and their executives have been pouring tens of millions of dollars into Donald Trump’s bid for the White House for months. Chris Larson is not one of them.

Ripple co-founder and chairman recently wrote $1 million worth of XRP tokensa currency created by Ripple in 2012, to Future Forward, a super political action committee (PAC) supporting the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Larson, who has supported candidates from both parties over the past few years, told CNBC on Monday that his comfort with Harris comes from conversations he has had with people inside the campaign and since the vice president replaced President Joe Biden What he saw from the Vice President.

It helps that Harris is from the Bay Area.

“She knew people who had grown up in the innovation economy their entire lives,” Larson said. “So I think she fundamentally understands this, and I think Biden’s people are just not paying attention, or maybe just not making the connection between empowering workers and ensuring that American champions dominate their industries.”

Larson’s fondness for the Democratic candidate is nothing new. In February, he Highest individual donation given to Harris, $6,600 That happened about five months before she became the Democratic presidential nominee, Federal Election Commission documents show. At the same time, he donated $100,000 to the Harris Action Fund PAC.

According to FEC data compiled by crypto market and blockchain analyst James Delmore and independently verified by CNBC, Larson has donated a total of approximately $1.9 million to support Harris’ campaign, either directly or through PACs.

Larson, 64, has a net worth of $3.1 billion, according to data ForbesMainly from his ownership of XRP and involvement in Ripple, which provides blockchain technology to financial services companies.

His industry has suddenly become prominent in political fundraising, albeit more in support of Republicans. Nearly half of all corporate money flowing into elections came from the cryptocurrency industry, According to a recent report From the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen.

The money was raised from multiple donors, with Coinbase, Ripple and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz accounting for the majority of commercial donations. The industry raised roughly 13 times as much money as it raised in the last presidential election year.

According to Delmore’s compilation of FEC data, nearly two-thirds of crypto donations either support Republicans or oppose Democrats. FEC documents show that Trump has received more than $4 million in virtual tokens, and in July the former president gave a keynote speech at a major Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

Larson’s latest contributions include Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro received $1 million in December and nearly $7,000 in February to Massachusetts Republican John Deaton, who is fighting an outspoken Cryptocurrency critic Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. He also donated $250,000 to the Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund in 2022 and to a pro-Biden political action committee in 2020.

Larson told CNBC that he was “very confident” that Harris would bring “a more pragmatic approach and clear rules” to the crypto industry, a stark contrast to the current situation at the SEC under Gary Gensler. Gensler’s open hostility toward much of the crypto industry and his harsh crackdown on companies including Ripple is a big reason why many in the space have expressed support for Trump.

In January, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who also donated to members of both parties, called Gensler a “political liability.”

“What we’ve experienced so far almost feels like Gensler is deliberately creating chaos to overwhelm the domestic industry,” Larson said. He said it “only enhances the ability for more sketchy foreign operations. There’s nothing about this.” meaning,” adding that “Gensler must be the most disliked person in Washington, D.C.”

CNBC reached out to Gensler’s office for comment but did not receive a response.

Ripple’s legal chief said in June that the company had spent more than $100 million on litigation to defend itself from civil charges filed against the SEC. In 2020, before Biden takes office, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Charges RippleGarlinghouse and Larsen violated securities laws by acting as unregistered brokers of digital currency tokens, which the SEC regulates as securities. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission then fired Two top Ripple executives have been charged, and the company denies violating securities laws. They are still actively litigating.

Earlier this month, the agency filed a notice of appeal in its multi-year case with Ripple.

Ripple has donated approximately $50 million to pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake, which has been contributing to candidates on and off the ballot as well as to candidates in both parties.

Harris has been gaining momentum in the cryptocurrency community.

Two days after Biden dropped out of the race, Marvin AmoryThe legal head of decentralized exchange Uniswap has donated to the Harris Action Fund. Uniswap also faces accusations of violating U.S. securities laws.

Skybridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci served as White House communications director under Trump for 11 days, Donated more than $36,000 to two PACs Support the Democratic candidate. Scaramucci said he was part of a group of cryptocurrency advocates who worked with Harris on her campaign’s digital asset policy and helped the vice president distance Democrats from Sen. Warren.

Then there’s venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, who has a massive portfolio of cryptocurrency companies. Andreessen Horowitz co-founder and partner Marc Andreessen said in July that they planned to make large donations to PACs supporting Trump’s presidential bid because they believed Trump was friendly to the “small tech agenda.”

That’s when Biden won the nomination. By early October, Horowitz seemed to have changed his mind. He told company employees he would make a “significant” personal contribution to Harris’ campaign. Horowitz said he and his wife, Felicia, “have known Vice President Harris for more than a decade, and she has been a good friend to both of us during that time.”

A few weeks ago, in late September, Harris finally endorsed cryptocurrencies in a public speech.

“We will encourage innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital assets while protecting our consumers and investors,” she told a conference. Raised $27 million In New York.

On Monday, the Harris campaign unveiled its “Black Opportunity Agenda” Report. The plan explicitly mentions the creation of a cryptocurrency framework in the United States aimed at protecting these assets. The campaign stated that more than 20% of black Americans own or have owned digital currency.

Although Larson has a record of donating to Democrats, he faced criticism on social media after CNBC reported his latest donation on Friday.

“There is a lot of skepticism within the Ripple community and indeed the crypto community in general about Kamala’s candidacy and the policies she will pursue,” Delmore said, mirroring much of the sentiment online

Larson dismissed the criticism and said he doesn’t follow social media.

watch: Trump launches new cryptocurrency venture