Trust issues: Can crypto regulation stop those who ‘bamboozle and defraud?
Biden was ‘overly aggressive’
Scaramucci, whose hedge fund embraced Bitcoin Bitcoin
Bitcoin as an offering in 2020, has a prolific career in finance, having spent seven years at Goldman Sachs.
He was also a former White House communications director for 11 days under ex-President Donald Trump.
Scaramucci has since soured on Trump and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 presidential election. He even revealed at the TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore that he and other cryptocurrency advocates are collaborating with the Harris campaign to shape more industry-friendly policies should she win on Election Day, Nov. 5.
For crypto investors, it’s exactly what they’re looking for: an inside man who knows the industry and can carve inroads with Washington, D.C. Up until now, their big gripe is with the Biden administration and the current leadership within the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In 2023, SEC Chair Gary Gensler, a Biden appointee, brought 46 cryptocurrency-related enforcement actions. That’s up 53% from 2022, according to Cornerstone Research.
Lawmakers were perhaps “embarrassed” by FTX founder Bankman-Fried, Scaramucci adds. Bankman-Fried was convicted of embezzling an estimated $10 billion of his customer’s deposits (Scaramucci’s SkyBridge suffered a hit when FTX collapsed).
Since then, the SEC has grown more strict. Gensler has taken action against major players such as Binance, Coinbase, Ripple, and Terraform Labs. This has sparked numerous legal battles and high-profile cases.
Most cryptocurrency tokens qualify as securities under U.S. law and, as a result, fall under SEC oversight.
“I thought that they [the Biden administration] were overly aggressive in terms of their anti-crypto positioning,” Scaramucci says. “It was unnecessary to be that aggressive.”
Other crypto pros share a similar sentiment. Tim Kravchunovsky, founder and CEO of decentralized telecommunications company Chirp, argues that those enforcement actions by the SEC felt more like attacks rather than constructive oversight.
“Crypto investors were met with confusion, inconsistent policies, and outright hostility at times,” Kravchunovsky said of the past four years. “Instead of fostering innovation or providing clarity, the [Biden] administration’s actions raised anxiety, leaving investors guessing about the future of the space.”
Advice for Harris
Crypto is one area where Harris, 59, deviates from Biden. Last month, at an event in Manhattan, the Democratic nominee stated that she wants to embrace “innovative technologies” like digital assets while also protecting consumers and investors.
Billionaires Mark Cuban and Ben Horowitz are both on board; so is Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, who made his first recorded cryptocurrency donation to her campaign.
Should Harris win the election, Morrison offered some advice on behalf of his crypto peers: “If Ms. Harris wins next month, then please don’t relegate cryptocurrencies to the ‘Can’t be bothered’ bucket.”
Crypto has the potential to help the unbanked and “boost entrepreneurship in some of the poorest and most neglected places on our planet,” he adds. “Don’t write it off just because Donald Trump talks about it so much.”
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