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The Mooch, Andrew Yang, and Crypto’s Tipping Point
Happy Friday all. I spent yesterday at the Future of Finance in New York, a one-day event where Fortune brought together big names in traditional finance like black rock and Apollo, and more recent players like PayPal and Robinhood. During today’s crypto panel, which presented Coinbase, Grayscale and Ripple: I was struck by the fact that the leaders of these companies appeared to be part of the financial sector rather than, as has been the case in recent years, as fringe challengers. However, the most notable moment in crypto was our opening dinner with Andrew Yang and Anthony “the Mooch” Scaramucci.
Both men rose to the highest levels of American political power. Yang was a major contender in the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee’s primary, while Scaramucci had a brief but memorable stint in the White House as Donald Trump’s communications director. Since then, both have become strong supporters of crypto. Yang shared his original but compelling vision that involves using blockchain as part of a broader time banking system that would compensate Americans for a wide variety of jobs, like child care, that do not is currently unpaid – a system he says will become essential at a time when AI is poised to eliminate millions of jobs.
Scaramucci, who is a crypto investor through his hedge fund, has defended blockchain politically, pointing out that tens of millions of Americans already own it. He added that the current position of President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders does not make sense because, even if the number of people who would vote based on crypto is relatively small, these are still votes that the party could collect versus an anti hard line. -crypto position which does not bring them any new votes.
Their comments come at a time when a growing number of Democrats share the same sentiment. On Friday, 11 senators rejected their party’s official position and joined Republicans in passing a bill to overturn SEC accounting guidelines that make it unviable for banks to hold cryptocurrencies. Among them were Majority Leader Charles Schumer and fellow New York senator and Wall Street ally Kirsten Gillibrand.
Biden has indicated he will veto the bill, but given that the tide is turning even within his own party – not to mention poll numbers suggesting he is on the verge of losing the election – he will not It wouldn’t be surprising if he changed course. In recent months, it appears that crypto has reached a tipping point in the United States and that efforts by the White House and its progressive allies to crush it completely are doomed to failure. When times change, the best solution for elected officials is usually to change with them.
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Jeff John Roberts
jeff.roberts@fortune.com
@jeffjohnroberts
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com