Biden Campaign Reaches Out To Crypto Industry In U-Turn On Policy As Cathie Wood Says Politics Got Ethereum ETFs Approved

BySteven Walgenbach

Updated: 30 May 2024

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The Joe Biden campaign has reversed its anti-crypto stance and is reaching out to crypto experts for input on crypto policy, The Block reported.

Biden’s campaign is seeking input from crypto industry players regarding “crypto community and crypto policy moving forward,” sources with direct knowledge of the matter told The Block.

The outreach marks a major “shift” in Biden’s stance towards the digital asset industry, the sources added. That news comes as ARK Invest founder and CEO Cathie Wood said the sudden approval of spot Ethereum ETFs (exchange-traded funds) last week was triggered by politics.

Joe Biden Campaign And Donald Trump Change Their Stance Towards Crypto

The Biden Campaign’s sudden push to understand the crypto space comes after web 3 experts opposed the President’s plan to veto the repeal of SAB 121.

It also follows former President Donald Trump’s shift from calling crypto “a very dangerous thing” in 2021 to announcing on May 21 that his re-election campaign will accept donations in crypto.

Trump’s campaign is already being advised by “very smart and capable people” in the crypto space, sources in the former President’s inner circle told The Block.

But Biden’s U-turn on crypto has left some industry players feeling skeptical, with one source telling The Block that the recent outreach by the Biden campaign might be “too little, too late.”

Ethereum ETFs Approved In Political Move

Wood believes that the sudden and unexpected approval of spot ETH ETFs was fueled by political motives.

“The read was it was not going to be approved,” she said. “It was absolutely not going to be approved. If it were to have been approved the regular way, we would have been getting questions from the SEC. No one was getting questions from the SEC beforehand.”

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The ARK Invest CEO said Trump has became “much more cozy with bitcoin and crypto generally.” This caught the attention of the Biden administration, she added.