Joe Biden Is Trying to ‘Kill Crypto’, Says Cardano Creator

A fight over a non-binding resolution passed in the U.S. House has erupted into a broader battle, pitting the crypto industry against the Biden administration.

“The Biden administration has engaged in a coordinated effort to kill crypto,” wrote Charles Hoskinson, creator of Cardano, on Twitter.

Yesterday, the White House said U.S. Pres. Joe Biden would veto resolution H.J. Res. 109, which demanded that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) retract a staff bulletin on digital asset custody accounting. The resolution won a bipartisan vote of 229-193, declaring that the SEC’s views were holding back American innovation in the digital asset space.

Hoskinson declared the move only the latest in what he called "Operation Chokepoint 2.0."

“This November, if you vote for Joe Biden as a cryptocurrency holder, please understand that the intent of this administration is to destroy the American cryptocurrency industry,” he said on a Twitter livestream late Wednesday. “Understand that. It’s unambiguously clear.”

The White House argued that the resolution would hurt the SEC's efforts to protect investors in crypto markets and safeguard the broader financial system. But crypto enthusiasts don’t see it that way—and many believe that former president Donald Trump will be the better option in November's election.

"The [Trump] administration had its issues but mostly ignored our industry,” Hoskinson tweeted.

“The enforcement is tone-deaf and continues to carry on the same policy, which has cost tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of American jobs as well as the loss of a trillion-dollar industry," Hoskinson said.

“They have confiscated, lied, and repeatedly throughout the years hurt our industry in every way possible, whether it be restricting access to bank accounts, regulation through enforcement, anti clarity, in some cases reversing decisions that had already been made, and now obstructing the legislative process,” he continued. “Understand that a vote for Biden is a vote against cryptocurrencies.”

Ryan Selkis, founder of Messari, also expressed concern about Biden’s position on crypto.

“If Biden is reelected, they’ll hit stablecoins by requiring bank licenses for issuers, all tokens for being unregistered securities, all DeFi for unlicensed money transmission, Bitcoin mining, layers on top of BTC, and self-hosted wallets to collect crypto unrealized gains.”

The CEO of Irreverent Labs, Rahul Sood, also expressed his disappointment, suggesting that voting for Biden is now even harder for those who care about crypto in the U.S.

"Wow—well, that settles it,” Sood tweeted. ”Thanks for making it easy, Joe."

The Founder of Helium, Amir Haleem, echoed the sentiment. "Sad state of affairs,” he wrote on Twitter. “If you care about crypto in the US, voting for Biden is now even more impossible.”

The document at the root of the dispute is a so-called Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB), which SEC Chair Gary Gensler has said is uncontroversial.

"It basically addresses whether liabilities should be on the balance sheet, and what we have found actually in bankruptcy court, time and again, many times now, is that indeed, bankruptcy courts have said that crypto assets are not bankruptcy remote,” he said in December. “So, the staff, as they have done over 50 years, did really good work."

But Gensler has many vocal critics on Capitol Hill.

Republican Patrick McHenry accused him of wanting to “choke off” the crypto industry. Even the courts have criticized the SEC over its “arbitrary and capricious” decisions.

Crypto holders may be growing in importance as a constituency worth courting by politicians. A recent study by the Blockchain Association found that 90% of all crypto holders plan to vote in the next election, with the majority worried that politicians may be stifling innovation via overregulation. 45% liked or self identified as Democrats, 43% as Republicans, and 11% identified as independent.

Biden’s rival, Donal Trump is taking the opportunity to earn the adoration of concerned crypto holders.

“Crypto is moving out of the U.S. because of hostility towards crypto,” Trump said during a special event in Florida yesterday. “Gensler is very much against it, the Democrats are very much against it, but I’m good with it.”

This pro-crypto stance sharply contrasts with his previous statements back from when he was president of the United States. “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” Trump wrote on Twitter in 2019.