Kamala Harris’ campaign isn’t directly accepting crypto — a Super PAC is

Coinbase’s chief financial officer suggested that United States Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign accepted crypto donations through the exchange’s Commerce platform. 

On Sept. 4, Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas spoke at Citi’s 2024 Global TMT Conference in New York, saying Vice President Harris had a “huge opportunity” to court voters in the 2024 election by supporting legislation favoring the crypto industry. Haas added that the Democratic presidential candidate was “using Coinbase Commerce now to accept crypto for her own campaign,” leading to reports that the campaign was directly accepting contributions in digital assets.

However, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign said that at this time, the campaign was able to receive crypto contributions through the Future Forward political action committee (PAC). According to Open Secrets, the super PAC has raised more than $163 million for Harris’ bid to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump in the November election.

Future Forward spent $150 million toward the election of then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2020. After Biden said he would not run for reelection in 2024, his senior adviser Anita Dunn — who has also attended events discussing crypto policy with industry leaders — reportedly planned to join the super PAC.

PACs influencing US elections?

FTX executives, including then-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, contributed to Future Forward as part of efforts to support Democratic candidates for the 2022 US midterm elections. The super PAC was one of five named whose funds may be subject to forfeiture as part of the criminal case against Bankman-Fried and FTX executives. 

Related: Bitcoin $59K price may swing ‘drastically’ amid election year parallels

Money from political action committees, including Future Forward and the crypto-funded Fairshake PAC, could impact the 2024 US elections for congressional races and the presidency. Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal — the crypto exchange is one of Fairshake’s top donors — said the firm was more focused on House races but was still in touch with Harris and Trump campaign officials. 

On Sept. 3, Republican John Deaton, who received support from the Commonwealth Unity Fund — a PAC with donors from significant crypto industry leaders — won his primary in Massachusetts. The PAC spent more than $1.3 million to support Deaton. He will face off against incumbent Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren in November.

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