Kamala Harris Is Not Directly Accepting Crypto Donations, a PAC Is, Coinbase Says
A spokesperson for Coinbase said the Future Forward PAC, which is dedicated to supporting Kamala Harris, is accepting crypto donations, rather than her campaign directly.
Updated Sep 5, 2024, 4:34 p.m. Published Sep 4, 2024, 10:01 p.m.
A Coinbase (COIN) executive appears to have misspoken – or been imprecise – when she said Vice President Kamala Harris is accepting crypto donations.
Harris "is accepting donations," Coinbase Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas said at a Citigroup event Wednesday. Fortune first reported that news. "She's using Coinbase Commerce now to accept crypto for her campaign."
But, according to a Coinbase spokesperson, Haas was referring to the Future Forward USA PAC, not her campaign. "Coinbase can confirm that the Future Forward PAC has onboarded with Coinbase Commerce to accept crypto donations," the spokesperson told CoinDesk.
While the Harris campaign isn't taking crypto contributions directly, Future Forward USA, is a major source of support for Harris, and the development is, at minimum, possibly a signal that Democrats are warming to cryptocurrencies. Harris' opponent in the presidential election, Donald Trump, has courted – and won – support from crypto fans and companies. The presidential administration in which Harris serves has been strongly criticized by the industry for what's viewed as an anti-crypto stance.
Future Forward is a hybrid PAC, first used for President Joe Biden, that can contribute directly to the campaign or pay for independent advertising that's not coordinated with Harris' camp.
Harris' campaign website does not currently offer ways to donate in crypto, and advocacy group Crypto4Harris told Fortune that it was not aware of the development.
A representative for the Harris campaign didn't immediately comment when contacted by CoinDesk.
Helene Braun
Helene is a New York-based news reporter at CoinDesk, covering news about Wall Street, the rise of the spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and updates on crypto exchanges. She is also the co-host of CoinDesk's Markets Daily show on Spotify and Youtube. Helene is a recent graduate of New York University's business and economic reporting program and has appeared on CBS News, YahooFinance and Nasdaq TradeTalks. She holds BTC and ETH.
Jesse Hamilton
Jesse Hamilton is CoinDesk's deputy managing editor on the Global Policy and Regulation team, based in Washington, D.C. Before joining CoinDesk in 2022, he worked for more than a decade covering Wall Street regulation at Bloomberg News and Businessweek, writing about the early whisperings among federal agencies trying to decide what to do about crypto. He’s won several national honors in his reporting career, including from his time as a war correspondent in Iraq and as a police reporter for newspapers. Jesse is a graduate of Western Washington University, where he studied journalism and history. He has no crypto holdings.
