Kamala Harris is not directly accepting cryptocurrency donations as previously reported by mainstream media.
A Sept. 4 Fortune report cited Coinbase chief financial officer Alesia Haas saying Kamala Harris is “accepting crypto donations.” She continued:
“She’s using Coinbase Commerce now to accept crypto for her own campaign.”
Kamala Harris more likely to receive indirect crypto donations
Still, publicly traded United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase quickly took that statement back. According to a Sept. 5 report by industry news outlet Coindesk, the aforementioned “executive appears to have misspoken.”
A Coinbase spokesperson denied the claim that the Democrat presidential candidate is directly accepting crypto campaign donations through Coinbase Commerce. Instead, Haas was most likely imprecisely referring to the Future Forward PAC which does indeed leverage Coinbase Commerce to accept crypto donations:
“Coinbase can confirm that the Future Forward PAC has onboarded with Coinbase Commerce to accept crypto donations.”
So while Harris is not directly accepting crypto donations, she is indirectly receiving such donations from a PAC that finances her campaign. Coindesk further suggested that this might be “possibly a signal that Democrats are warming to cryptocurrencies.”
The news follows recent reports of a group of crypto industry leaders planning a fundraiser to raise $100,000 for Kamala Harris’ campaign with hopes of influencing her stance on cryptocurrency. The event is planned by the Blockchain Foundation for Sept. 13 in Washington DC and tickets range from $500 to $5,000.
Despite some signs of lessening hostility towards crypto by Democrats, Trump is still largely seen as the pro-crypto candidate in the United States presidential elections. A month after publicly saying that “if you’re for crypto, you better vote for Trump” he announced his own cryptocurrency platform in late August.
The announcement provided little in terms of details. It is not known what the project will be focused on or even whether it’ll include a coin, trading market, decentralized autonomous organization, or something completely different.
