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A rumor swept like wildfire across the crypto world\u2019s social media accounts this week: the Democratic party\u2019s new standard bearer, Kamala Harris, was \u201cin talks\u201d with the organizers of Bitcoin 2024 to address the annual industry conference, where her rival Donald Trump is slated to speak. \u201cThey\u2019re making up their minds today,\u201d organizer David Bailey, tweeted<\/a> on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n Harris had been the Democrats\u2019 presumed Presidential nominee for all of a few days, and her team has only begun putting together a campaign schedule\u2014so the chances of her attending a Bitcoin gathering in Nashville on short notice seemed improbable. Nonetheless, when the campaign confirmed she could not attend, the conference treated the news with indignation. \u201cNo surprise\u2026\u2026it would have been a disaster for her,\u201d Bailey wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sources close to the matter, however, told Fortune<\/em> that the Harris team had in fact given the invitation serious consideration.\u00a0This in itself is news. That the nominee for the Democratic party, whose leadership has been implacably hostile to crypto, was in \u201ctalks\u201d to address 30,000 Bitcoiners, reflects just how much policy could shift under Harris.<\/p>\n Kamala Harris will not be speaking @TheBitcoinConf<\/a>. No surprise. What can she say to us when she\u2019s actively imprisoning developers, forcing our industry overseas, attacking PoW\u2026 it would have been a disaster for her.<\/p>\n All eyes on Trump now.<\/p>\n \u2014 David Bailey\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf7 $0.65mm\/btc is the floor (@DavidFBailey) July 24, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n The industry now waits to see if Harris, who has a relatively blank slate<\/a> when it comes to crypto, could win back some of the crypto voters who are pledging support for Donald Trump in light of his commitment to be a \u201ccrypto president.\u201d Meanwhile, some in her own party are already pressing her<\/a> to adopt a more favorable position. So, when can we expect to hear?<\/p>\n \u201cShe doesn\u2019t have a lot of time to redefine herself. She has a very short window to kind of definitively say that she\u2019s her own person,\u201d says one crypto lobbyist and former White House advisor, who spoke to Fortune<\/em> on the condition of anonymity. He estimates Harris will make her views on crypto clear within the next few weeks. Crypto \u201cis not a bad issue to throw in with a few others as a way to say, hey, that was Biden\u2019s administration\u2014my vision is going to be different. I\u2019m more embracing of tech and innovation,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gary DeWaal, a former senior trial attorney at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), told Fortune <\/em>he doesn\u2019t expect Harris to comment on crypto before August 7, when she will announce her pick for vice president. \u201cThat\u2019s her priority now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The very act of the Harris team mulling over Bitcoin 2024 is itself a wordless statement on crypto; President Joe Biden\u2019s campaign would have offered an automatic rejection. His administration has been stubborn to pass regulation in Congress, and enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission against crypto firms have shot up<\/a> under Chairman Gary Gensler. <\/p>\n For starters, when Biden became president, many of his economic advisors<\/a> were former colleagues of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a staunch crypto critic. Harris does not have the same connections.\u00a0The crypto lobbyist shared that Harris\u2019 tech advisor is believed to be pro-crypto, and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, is a \u201ccrypto guy.\u201d He added: \u201cI expect that she\u2019ll shift.\u201d<\/p>\n In one potentially promising sign, businessman and Bitcoin enthusiast Mark Cuban this week told Decrypt<\/a> that he\u2019s received multiple questions from the Harris camp about crypto. <\/p>\n And Harris fostering a more open-minded stance on crypto and blockchain technology compared to Biden would be consistent with her career representing California in the U.S. Senate, where she regularly advocated for Silicon Valley. In public office, \u201c[she] developed good relations with tech industry leaders,\u201d DeWaal added. Among them are executives like Meta\u2019s Sheryl Sandberg, whom she cultivated<\/a> a close relationship with, leading to a reputation as a pro-business politician.\u00a0<\/p>\n All of this might lead the crypto industry to hope Harris will turn the page on her predecessor\u2019s hard line. But for now, at least, all they have is only that: hope.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n CEO Daily provides key context for the news leaders need to know from across the world of business. Every weekday morning, more than 125,000 readers trust CEO Daily for insights about\u2013and from inside\u2013the C-suite. Subscribe Now<\/a>.<\/div>\n\n\n
\u2018She doesn\u2019t have a lot of time to redefine herself\u2019<\/h2>\n
Where could Harris stand on crypto?<\/h2>\n
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