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Join Telegram ChannelSurprisingly, Chris Larsen, co-founder and CEO of Ripple, has donated around $1 million in XRP to Kamala Harris' presidential campaign. This development comes as Ripple faces a protracted legal dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), raising eyebrows among observers of the cryptocurrency community.
According to CoinTelegraph, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records reveal that Larsen donated 1,754,815.29 XRP, worth about $1 million, to a PAC supporting Harris in August. As Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett noted, this marks the first formal involvement of cryptocurrency market players in Harris' campaign.
Ripple Co-Founder Donates $1 Million to Harris Campaign
Other notable figures in the crypto world who support Harris include Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, who emphasized that crypto supporters should not vote selfishly, solely in the interests of their market.
Larsen's donation does not indicate a change in the Democratic Party's stance, as President Biden expressed similar sentiments earlier this year. However, the timing of the donation is particularly interesting considering Larsen's ongoing legal troubles with the SEC.
In contrast, former President Donald Trump has openly supported the crypto industry, recently attending the Bitcoin 2024 conference and pledging to end what he called the “war on cryptocurrency.” Trump also stated that if re-elected, he would never sell US Bitcoin, gaining a large following in the crypto sector. One of its main proponents is Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, who argues that the cryptocurrency's survival depends on Trump's return to the presidency.
As the presidential election heats up, the intersection between politics and the cryptocurrency market is becoming increasingly clear, with major players from the crypto industry engaging in political discourse like never before.