Vitalik Buterin Warns Against 'Trend' Of Favoring Pro-Crypto Candidates

A growing number of key players and prominent figures in the cryptocurrency space are calling on voters within the industry to choose candidates who have expressed support for the sector, but one well-known industry pioneer is going against the tide.

Coinbase leads calls for 'pro-crypto' candidates support

Last month, crypto exchange giant Coinbase led the way in calling on the industry to support "pro-crypto" candidates. It reiterated that it is an "apolitical" company but will go for any path that will allow it to be "deeply engaged in policy efforts."

Coinbase donated $25 million worth of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin to help fund the Fairshake SuperPAC. It said the best way for the industry to achieve regulatory clarity is to elect pro-crypto candidates "on both sides of the aisle" and remove anti-crypto candidates from office.

Stand With Crypto – the voice of political activism

Stand With Crypto, a nonprofit that calls for "clear, common-sense regulations" for the industry, continues to urge crypto users and other stakeholders to engage in political activism.

It sponsored the Crypto RNC blockchain knowledge base at the 2024 GOP Convention in Milwaukee and has engaged in discussions with a growing number of politicians on crypto policy and regulation.

Ethereum figure warns against 'trend'

While some prominent crypto figures such as the Winklevoss twins have already made it clear which presidential candidate they will vote for, others appear to still be weighing the pros and cons.

For Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, making decisions based on how "pro-crypto" a candidate is may not be the best route. "There is a growing push within the crypto space to become more politically active, and favor political parties and candidates almost entirely on whether or not they are willing to be lenient and friendly to crypto. In this post, I argue against this trend, and in particular I argue that making decisions in this way carries a high risk of going against the values that brought you into the crypto space in the first place," he wrote in a blog Wednesday.

He explained that there is more to crypto than just the tokens and several known benefits it has to offer. He said there are broader aspects of the industry such as "goals that motivate people to build and participate in blockchain applications" that often have implications outside of the technology. "Don't stand with crypto-as-in-cryptocurrency, stand with those underlying goals, and the whole set of policy implications that they imply," he wrote.

How long can candidates stay crypto-friendly?

In the middle of his lengthy post, Buterin briefly discussed a critical aspect of politics in crypto. He noted that "crypto-friendly now does not mean crypto-friendly five years from now." The prominent computer programmer who also co-founded Bitcoin Magazine, urged crypto users to look up candidates' views on the industry and related topics from five years back to have an idea on how they have changed since.

It's more complicated than crypto voters think

Buterin, whose brainchild is expected to see its very own spot $ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) go live next week, argued that politics is more complicated than determining who wins the elections. He noted that publicly giving the impression that a crypto voter supports pro-crypto candidates helps create "an incentive gradient where politicians come to understand that all they need to get your support is to support 'crypto.'"

He pointed out further that it will no longer matter if that candidate supports the ban of encrypted messaging or "if they are a power-seeking narcissist," or if the candidate pushes for bills that make it difficult for other people to attend an upcoming crypto conference.

Asking the right questions

Finally, Buterin said the most important thing for crypto voters to do is to ask the right questions, and key among those questions is whether candidates claiming to be pro-crypto are "in it for the right reasons" – whether they have a vision for the broader technology surrounding crypto.

Buterin's arguments support the findings in a recent poll (2024 Election: The Role of Crypto) that showed 79% of respondents believe it is "imperative that political leaders work towards creating frameworks and rules that enable financial inclusion and investor protection."