Cryptocurrency investors and industry executives calling on Vice President Kamala Harris to pursue a softer regulatory stance on the industry are planning to raise at least $100,000 for the Democratic nominee at a Sept. 13 Washington fundraiser.
The grassroots event is scheduled to take place between the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus conferences, and aims to bring together a diverse group of donors, the organizers told Reuters. Tickets to the fundraiser range from $500 to $5,000, said Cleve Mesidor, executive director of the Blockchain Foundation and one of the organizers.
The event’s fundraising goal is small compared to the hundreds of millions Harris has raked in since becoming the Democratic presidential candidate in July when President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. But it is the latest sign that at least some in the industry are rallying behind her rather than Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has courted big crypto donors with friendly policy pledges.
Reuters was first to report the fundraiser.
The organizers include Tiffany Smith, co-chair of the Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Working Group at law firm WilmerHale and Rahilla Zafar, a crypto founder who has also worked in artificial intelligence. They are hoping that if elected, Harris will ease up on crypto after the Securities and Exchange Commission under Biden cracked down on the sector.
The agency says crypto firms are flouting securities laws, although the industry disputes that those laws apply to them.
“Why not seize on the first fundraiser — which there will be many others — to actually make a statement about what crypto is for Democrats as a potentially new administration contemplates how do they look at this?” said Mesidor.
She said she hopes the event will facilitate conversations about how a potential Harris administration might encourage crypto innovation and provide more people of color with access to capital. “We wanted to make sure that with the change in the presidential nominee for the Democrats, that we were supportive and we came together to help her understand the importance of this industry,” said WilmerHale’s Smith.
The group is not affiliated with the Harris campaign, which did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
A separate group called Crypto4Harris also emerged this month and plans to throw fundraisers for Harris. The group held a town hall during which billionaire Mark Cuban and Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci spoke in favor of Harris.
Although Harris has yet to publicly take a stance on crypto, her campaign staff have met with prominent crypto firms including Coinbase and Ripple, Reuters previously reported.
Those and other big crypto companies are donating to pro-crypto candidates in congressional races in both parties via super political action committees, campaign finance records show, rather than aligning themselves with either presidential candidate.
Brian Nelson, a senior adviser for the Harris campaign, said at an event at the Democratic National Convention this month that Harris would support the growth of emerging technologies, which many in the crypto industry saw as a positive sign.
“(Kamala Harris) has this golden opportunity to really lay out a plan to sway a lot of these voters from the crypto industry,” said Zafar.
US crypto executives to throw Washington fundraiser for Kamala Harris
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US crypto executives to throw Washington fundraiser for Kamala Harris
- It is the latest sign that some in the industry are rallying behind Harris rather than Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has courted big crypto donors with friendly policy pledges
- Although Harris has yet to publicly take a stance on crypto, her campaign staff have met with prominent crypto firms including Coinbase and Ripple
Starvation fears as flood toll passes 900 in Indonesia
- More than 1,790 people have been killed in natural disasters unfolding across Southeast Asia over the past week
- Floods have swept away roads, smothered houses in silt, and cut off supplies in Indonesia's provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: Ruinous floods and landslides have killed more than 900 people on Indonesia’s island of Sumatra, the country’s disaster management agency said Saturday, with fears that starvation could send the toll even higher.
A chain of tropical storms and monsoonal rains has pummelled Southeast and South Asia, triggering landslides and flash floods from the Sumatran rainforest to the highland plantations of Sri Lanka.
More than 1,790 people have been killed in natural disasters unfolding across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam over the past week.
In Indonesia’s provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, floods have swept away roads, smothered houses in silt, and cut off supplies.
Aceh governor Muzakir Manaf said response teams were still searching for bodies in “waist-deep” mud.
However, starvation was one of the gravest threats now hanging over remote and inaccessible villages.
“Many people need basic necessities. Many areas remain untouched in the remote areas of Aceh,” he told reporters.
“People are not dying from the flood, but from starvation. That’s how it is.”
Entire villages had been washed away in the rainforest-cloaked Aceh Tamiang region, Muzakir said.
“The Aceh Tamiang region is completely destroyed, from the top to the bottom, down to the roads and down to the sea.
“Many villages and sub-districts are now just names,” he said.
Aceh Tamiang flood victim Fachrul Rozi said he had spent the past week crammed into an old shop building with others who had fled the rising waters.
“We ate whatever was available, helping each other with the little supplies each resident had brought,” he told AFP. “We slept crammed together.”
Aceh resident Munawar Liza Zainal said he felt “betrayed” by the Indonesian government, which has so far shrugged off pressure to declare a national disaster.
“This is an extraordinary disaster that must be faced with extraordinary measures,” he told AFP, echoing frustrations voiced by other flood victims.
“If national disaster status is only declared later, what’s the point?“
Declaring a national disaster would free up resources and help government agencies coordinate their response.
Analysts have suggested Indonesia could be reluctant to declare a disaster — and seek additional foreign aid — because it would show it was not up to the task.
Indonesia’s government this week insisted it could handle the fallout.
Climate calamity
The scale of devastation has only just become clear in other parts of Sumatra as engorged rivers shrink and floodwaters recede.
AFP photos showed muddy villagers salvaging silt-encrusted furniture from flooded houses in Aek Ngadol, North Sumatra.
Humanitarian groups worry that the scale of the calamity could be unprecedented, even for a nation prone to natural disasters.
Indonesia’s death toll rose to 908 on Saturday, according to the disaster management agency, with 410 people missing.
Sri Lanka’s death toll jumped on Friday to 607, as the government warned that fresh rains raised the risk of new landslides.
Thailand has reported 276 deaths and Malaysia two, while at least two people were killed in Vietnam after heavy rains triggered a series of landslides.
Seasonal monsoon rains are a feature of life in Southeast Asia, flooding rice fields and nourishing the growth of other key crops.
However, climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic, unpredictable and deadly throughout the region.
Environmentalists and Indonesia’s government have also suggested that logging and deforestation exacerbated landslides and flooding in Sumatra.
