Kamala Harris makes first crypto pledge after Trump’s Bitcoin pitch

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Kamala Harris has spoken publicly about cryptocurrency for the first time, joining fellow US presidential candidate Donald Trump in courting the crypto industry ahead of November’s election.

Speaking at a fundraising event in New York on Sunday, Vice President Harris pledged to support emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and digital assets.

“I will bring together labour, small business founders and innovators and major companies. We will partner together to invest in America’s competitiveness, to invest in America’s future. We will encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets, while protecting our consumers and investors,” she told attendees.

“We will create a safe business environment with consistent and transparent rules of the road. We will invest in semiconductors, clean energy and other industries of the future, and we will cut needless bureaucracy.”

The comments, first reported by Bloomberg, come less than a week after rival Donald Trump launched a new crypto project that he claims will transform traditional finance and challenge the dominance of major banks.

The former president has pitched himself as the “crypto candidate”, having appeared at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in July to deliver a keynote that outlined his plans for the industry if elected.

Despite previously claiming that bitcoin is a “scam” and “disaster waiting to happen”, Mr Trump told attendees at the Nashville event that he would “immediately appoint a bitcoin and crypto presidential advisory council” and create a “national bitcoin stockpile” if elected.

Mr Trump unveiled a new crypto project called World Liberty Financial last week, which is being led by his two sons Eric and Donald Jr. His 18-year-old-son Barron is also serving as the platform’s “visionary”, though few details were shared about what it entails.

Scammers and cyber criminals have already targeted the project, with 70,000 of Mr Trump’s followers drawn to a fake crypto giveaway group on Telegram. Hackers also hijacked the X accounts of his daughter Tiffany and daughter-in-law Lara in order to promote a scam that aimed to profit from the hype surrounding World Liberty Financial.