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A growing number of key players and prominent figures in the cryptocurrency space are calling on voters within the industry to choose candidates who have expressed support for the sector, but one well-known industry pioneer is going against the tide.

Coinbase leads calls for 'pro-crypto' candidates support

Last month, crypto exchange giant Coinbase led the way in calling on the industry to support "pro-crypto" candidates. It reiterated that it is an "apolitical" company but will go for any path that will allow it to be "deeply engaged in policy efforts."

Coinbase donated $25 million worth of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin to help fund the Fairshake SuperPAC. It said the best way for the industry to achieve regulatory clarity is to elect pro-crypto candidates "on both sides of the aisle" and remove anti-crypto candidates from office.

Stand With Crypto the voice of political activism

Stand With Crypto, a nonprofit that calls for "clear, common-sense regulations" for the industry, continues to urge crypto users and other stakeholders to engage in political activism.

It sponsored the Crypto RNC blockchain knowledge base at the 2024 GOP Convention in Milwaukee and has engaged in discussions with a growing number of politicians on crypto policy and regulation.

Ethereum figure warns against 'trend'

While some prominent crypto figures such as the Winklevoss twins have already made it clear which presidential candidate they will vote for, others appear to still be weighing the pros and cons.

For Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, making decisions based on how "pro-crypto" a candidate is may not be the best route. "There is a growing push within the crypto space to become more politically active, and favor political parties and candidates almost entirely on whether or not they are willing to be lenient and friendly to crypto. In this post, I argue against this trend, and in particular I argue that making decisions in this way carries a high risk of going against the values that brought you into the crypto space in the first place," he wrote in a blog Wednesday.

He explained that there is more to crypto than just the tokens and several known benefits it has to offer. He said there are broader aspects of the industry such as "goals that motivate people to build and participate in blockchain applications" that often have implications outside of the technology. "Don't stand with crypto-as-in-cryptocurrency, stand with those underlying goals, and the whole set of policy implications that they imply," he wrote.

How long can candidates stay crypto-friendly?

In the middle of his lengthy post, Buterin briefly discussed a critical aspect of politics in crypto. He noted that "crypto-friendly now does not mean crypto-friendly five years from now." The prominent computer programmer who also co-founded Bitcoin Magazine, urged crypto users to look up candidates' views on the industry and related topics from five years back to have an idea on how they have changed since.

It's more complicated than crypto voters think

Buterin, whose brainchild is expected to see its very own spot $ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) go live next week, argued that politics is more complicated than determining who wins the elections. He noted that publicly giving the impression that a crypto voter supports pro-crypto candidates helps create "an incentive gradient where politicians come to understand that all they need to get your support is to support 'crypto.'"

He pointed out further that it will no longer matter if that candidate supports the ban of encrypted messaging or "if they are a power-seeking narcissist," or if the candidate pushes for bills that make it difficult for other people to attend an upcoming crypto conference.

Asking the right questions

Finally, Buterin said the most important thing for crypto voters to do is to ask the right questions, and key among those questions is whether candidates claiming to be pro-crypto are "in it for the right reasons" whether they have a vision for the broader technology surrounding crypto.

Buterin's arguments support the findings in a recent poll (2024 Election: The Role of Crypto) that showed 79% of respondents believe it is "imperative that political leaders work towards creating frameworks and rules that enable financial inclusion and investor protection."

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Vitalik Buterin Warns Against 'Trend' Of Favoring Pro-Crypto Candidates - International Business Times

A couple of days ago, even the most well-known figure in the crypto world, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, wanted to express his views on the upcoming presidential elections to be held in November in the USA.

Buterin has not openly sided with any of the candidates, but he wanted to warn voters that truly supporting the crypto world does not just mean making propaganda in favor.

Vitalik Buterin has published a long post on his blog titled Against choosing your political alliances based on who is pro-crypto.

The implicit reference is to those US politicians who, for purely electoral reasons, seek consensus by declaring themselves in favor of the crypto world.

In the post, Donald Trump is never mentioned, but it seems evident that Buterin was really referring to him.

Trump is now widely in favor of cryptocurrencies, also because he has earned a lot of ETH by selling NFTs, and apparently he is willing to sell more of them.

However, when he was President, and in particular in 2019, he said he would ban Bitcoin if it reached the price of $100,000.

Indeed, according to what was stated by the CEO of Block, Mike Brock, in 2020 Trump actually tried to ban Bitcoin, but was then stopped by Steve Mnuchin and a group of people from his administration who did not follow his wishes, in order to preserve American competitiveness and innovation.

Brock claims that he was present at the meeting where these things were discussed.

In his post Buterin states that in the last two years cryptocurrencies have become an increasingly important topic in politics, and not only in the USA.

He also says he considers many of the laws that have already been approved, or are under study, regarding the crypto world to be reasonable, but notes that within the sector there is a growing push to become more politically active and favor political parties and candidates based on whether or not they are willing to be lenient and friendly with crypto.

Buterin states that he is against this trend, because he argues that making decisions in this way involves a high risk of going against the values that in the first place drive people to enter the world of cryptocurrencies.

The famous co-founder of Ethereum explicitly cites the cypherpunk movement within which years ago the decentralization projects based on blockchain began to take shape, and which in fact had the objective of challenging the control of centralized authorities such as States.

It is a sort of return to the origins, that is, a recovery of the original reasons that pushed on one side some technicians to develop decentralized systems based on blockchain, and on the other millions of citizens to embrace them.

Furthermore, he adds that the game of politics is much more complicated than a simple who wins the next elections.

For these reasons, it is suggested not to vote for pro-crypto candidates just because they are pro-crypto, as otherwise, there is a risk of giving incentives to politicians who might limit themselves to trying to get votes by saying they support the crypto world.

Adds:

It doesnt matter if they also support the ban on encrypted messages, if they are narcissists seeking power, or if they push for bills that make it even harder for your Chinese or Indian friend to attend the next cryptocurrency conference: all politicians need to do is ensure that its easy for you to trade coins.

So it encourages considering other characteristics to evaluate the candidates, saying that there are much more honorable incentive gradients that one could help create.

Buterin also suggests asking oneself, in the case of candidates who claim to be pro-crypto, if they are doing it for the right reasons, and not just to gain momentary approval.

Being truly pro-crypto, according to Buterin, also means having a vision of how technology, politics, and the economy should progress in the 21st century, and having a good positive outlook that goes beyond short-term concerns.

The fact remains that it highlights the difference between politics and politicians, meaning by politics the governmental activity, and by politicians those who in democratic countries run for elections with the precise (and often sole) purpose of winning them.

It therefore suggests to voters to go beyond the words of politicians, often deceitful because they are pure propaganda, and to reason about what can realistically be expected from the real political action of future bull.

To understand the concerns of the famous co-founder of Ethereum, it is useful to also consider some contextual information about him.

Vitaliy Dmitrievi Buterin, known as Vitalik, was born in Russia in 1994.

At the age of six, he emigrated to Canada with his parents, so much so that he is now a Canadian citizen.

So he observes US politics relatively from afar, even though inevitably it affects his fortunes since the USA is by far the largest crypto market in the world. Buterin will not vote in the US presidential elections in November.

In recent years, he has often spoken very negatively about the politics of his home country, Russia, probably also due to his libertarian nature which makes him dislike authoritarian regimes like the current Russian one.

It is easy to imagine that even a figure like Donald Trump, who presents himself with clear authoritarian traits, is not much liked, even if it does not seem that he supports the rival Biden.

His concerns about the American elections actually seem to go far beyond the aspects more exquisitely related to the crypto sector, also because Buterin is a very informed person who has very broad and complex ideas regarding the entire human society, and not just the world of cryptocurrencies.

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Even Vitalik Buterin shares his thoughts on the USA elections - The Cryptonomist

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, issued a warning on Wednesday against choosing a candidate purely based on whether they claim to be pro-crypto. In a blog post, Buterin said its more important to scrutinize a candidates broader policies to ensure they support cryptocurrencys underlying goals, including internationalism and protection for private communications.

If a politician is pro-crypto, the key question to ask is:Are they in it for the right reasons?, wrote Buterin.Do they have a vision of how technology and politics and the economy should go in the 21st century that aligns with yours?

Though Buterin does not mention any politicians or crypto investors by name, his comments come just one day after Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz threw their support behind former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Presidential election. The founders of Andreessen Horowitz noted on their podcast yesterday that Trumps crypto regulation plan is a flat-out blanket endorsement of the entire space. The influential venture capitalists join the ranks of other notable Silicon Valley players, including Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump in the last week.

Further, Ethereums co-founder made the case that signaling you broadly support any pro-crypto candidates could incentivize politicians to promote the cause in bad faith. Buterin notes that authoritarian leaders, particularly in Russia, have claimed to support crypto in an effort to consolidate power.

It doesnt matter if they also support banning encrypted messaging, if they are a power-seeking narcissist, or if they push for bills that make it even harder for your Chinese or Indian friend to attend the next crypto conference all that politicians have to do is make sure its easy for you to trade coins, said Buterin.

The co-founder of Ethereum suggested to look into a crypto-friendly politicians views on crypto five years ago. He says this can serve as a guide for whether the politician may reverse their position five years in the future.

Notably, former President Trump starkly opposed decentralized tokens five years ago. In a tweet from July 2019, Trump said hes not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money. In a follow-up tweet, he said we have only one real currency in the USA, referring to the United States dollar.

But in May, Trump completed a total flip-flop on his stance regarding cryptocurrencies, becoming the first major presidential candidate to accept bitcoin donations. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trumps crypto fundraising efforts have collected $3 million worth of donations in the second quarter.

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Ethereum co-founder's warning against 'pro-crypto' candidates: 'Are they in it for the right reasons?' - TechCrunch

Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Input Output Global and the Cardano blockchain, disagrees with Vitalik Buterins statement that voters should be against choosing a candidate based on whos pro-crypto.

In a post on X, Hoskinson argues against what the Ethereum co-founder wrote, stating that a vote for current US President Joe Biden would be the death of the American crypto industry, and that the crypto community should vote for pro-crypto candidates.

In his opinion, candidates will stop bullying and harassing the crypto industry when they realise it only leads to lost votes. Politics is a game of cause and effect, he wrote.

Earlier this week, Buterin expressed concern about voters backing candidates who support cryptocurrencies without fully understanding their objectives.

In a post titled Against choosing your political allegiances based on who is pro-crypto, Buterin urged people to look at a politicians views on crypto from five years ago as this could be a good indication of where their views might be in the future.

If you see a politician being crypto-friendly, one thing you can do is look up their views on crypto itself five years ago, he wrote. Similarly, look up their views on related topics such as encrypted messaging five years ago.

Referencing the Stand With Crypto political initiative, which launched in May, Buterin states that the key bills listed, which the group uses, made no attemptto judge politicians on freedoms related to cryptography and technology that go beyond cryptocurrency.

If a politician is in favour of your freedom to trade coins, but they have said nothing about the topics above, then the underlying thought process that causes them to support the freedom to trade coins is very different from mine (and possibly yours), Buterin argued.

This in turn implies a high risk that they will likely have different conclusions from you on issues that you will care about in the future.

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Charles Hoskinson Disagrees with Vitalik Buterin on Pro-Crypto Stance - CoinJournal

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereums (ETH) co-founder, has cautioned against basing political allegiances solely on a candidates stance on cryptocurrency.

In a recent blog post, Buterin expressed concern over the growing trend in the crypto community to support politicians primarily based on their crypto-friendly policies. He wrote:

I argue that making decisions [on who to vote based on the candidates position towards crypto] carries a high risk of going against the values that brought you into the crypto space in the first place.

Vitalik Buterin noted that recent legislative efforts, such as the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) in the United States and the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation (MiCA) in the European Union, have spurred increased political engagement within the crypto sphere. However, he argues that this approach may contradict the fundamental values of the crypto movement.

Vitalik Buterin warns that supporting politicians solely for their pro-crypto stance could create a situation where candidates only need to claim support for crypto to gain backing, regardless of their other policies. Buterin suggests this oversimplification might lead to supporting politicians who, while nominally pro-crypto, could actually hinder the broader crypto ecosystem through other legislative actions:

All that politicians have to do is make sure its easy for you to trade coins.

Contrasting with Buterins perspective, billionaire Mark Cuban has expressed a different view. Cuban believes that crypto policy could be a decisive factor in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. He has suggested that President Joe Bidens stance on crypto might even cost him re-election.

Cuban emphasized the importance of crypto to younger and independent voters, stating, Crypto voters will be heard this election. He also asserted that Biden needs to choose between supporting SEC Chair Gary Genslers approach to crypto regulation or appealing to crypto-friendly voters.

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Ethereum co-founder urges broader political perspective in crypto - ReadWrite