Shark Tank Investor Mark Cuban Backs Kamala Harris VP Pick Tim Walz, Faces Blowback From Top VanEck Analyst

Updated: 07 August 2024

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Billionaire Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban defended Kamala Harris’s decision to pick Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate, facing swift blowback from a top analyst at fund management titan VanEck.

Cuban said in an Aug. 6 post on X that voters are tired of the “ideologues and hate from both parties” and want to vote for “normal people they can relate to.”

“Walz can sit at the kitchen table and make you feel like you have known him forever,” he said.

Cuban believes people who don’t agree with the Republican nominee’s vice president pick “are missing the lesson” of the Democratic Party’s switch to Harris. Harris “went from worst to first as people got to know her,” he said, speculating that the same thing might happen to Walz.

how can you say "as people got to know her" when she hasn't given an interview or press conference yet?

— matthew sigel, recovering CFA (@matthew_sigel) August 6, 2024

Mark Cuban Questioned By Top VanEck Analyst

His view was soon challenged by VanEck’s head of digital asset research, Matthew Sigel, who asked how people got to know Harris when “she hasn’t given an interview or press conference yet.”

The crypto industry has shown broad support for Trump because of his pledge to support the sector and Sigel has previously said that VanEck’s proposal to launch a spot Solana ETF (exchange-traded fund) is a bet on Trump winning November’s election.

Mark Cuban To Attend Crypto4Harris Town Hall

The spat came amid reports that Cuban will attend a virtual town hall arranged by an entity called Crypto4Harris.

According to its official X page, this organization is a group of crypto advocates “organizing, fundraising, and developing a nuanced crypto-policy approach for the Harris For President campaign.”

In an Aug. 6 post on X, the group announced that they will host a virtual town hall on Wednesday August 14. Elected officials, policy leaders and industry heavyweights will all be joining the event as part of the group’s efforts to push for a “nuanced policy stance” towards crypto that can position America as a leader in the field, the post said.

Join our virtual Town Hall next Wednesday to hear from elected officials, policy leaders, and industry heavyweights (including @mcuban) on our plans to support the campaign and ways you can get involved:
https://t.co/PYj41jHhc9

— Crypto4Harris (@Crypto4Harris) August 6, 2024

Cuban, who has called for the Republican Party to change its anti-crypto stance, was mentioned as one of the industry heavyweights that will be attending the virtual town hall.