Kamala Harris’ Super PAC embraces cryptocurrency donations: a new political frontier
Alesia Haas, Coinbase’s Chief Financial Officer, on Wednesday, announced that U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is utilizing the firm’s Coinbase Commerce platform to accept cryptocurrency donations. This revelation was made during a discussion with Peter Christiansen, Citigroup’s Director of Payments, at Citi’s 2024 Global TMT Conference in New York, a recording of which Fortune has reviewed.
Following the announcement, a Coinbase spokesperson confirmed to Fortune that “Coinbase can confirm that Future Forward has onboarded with Coinbase Commerce.” Future Forward is identified as Harris’s official Super PAC. This statement follows earlier reports by The Block indicating that Coinbase was in talks with the Harris campaign. As of now, Harris’s campaign has not responded to requests for comment.
Under President Joe Biden, the Democratic Party has generally been less supportive of cryptocurrencies compared to Republicans. However, recent lobbying efforts might signal a shift in this stance. “She is accepting crypto donations. She’s using Coinbase Commerce now to accept crypto for her own campaign,” Haas stated, referring to Coinbase’s platform that has been operational for merchants since 2018.
Despite this, the advocacy group Crypto4Harris has indicated that they are unaware of Harris accepting crypto donations, and Harris’s official fundraising site currently does not reflect this integration. In June, Future Forward announced it had raised $50 million to support Harris. We have reached out to Coinbase for further confirmation of Haas’s statement and are awaiting a response.
If true, this development aligns with Haas’s comments on “elevated policy spend” by Coinbase, highlighting what she views as a rare opportunity for regulatory clarity in the U.S. “We’re in a unique precipice where we might get regulatory clarity in the US,” she noted.
In June, Coinbase had its first donorship at Fairshake, which is a political action committee that was created for this purpose. Haas mentioned that “incremental” contributions were made to the PAC throughout the second quarter, “furthering support of just general policy efforts into Q3.” As of June, the super PAC reportedly reached its goals in 32 out of 34 contests in which it took part, thus confirming the impact of these donations. “We are seeing those dollars have an impact in those elections,” Haas remarked.
“She has a huge opportunity. We’re cautiously optimistic,” Haas added. “She has not rolled out the details yet, but she has made overtures that she would like to drive crypto legislation.”
Meanwhile, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has stated that the company has not donated directly to any presidential campaigns.
