Schumer is setting the stage for a new era of US crypto-politics

“We were able to light up our big tent and show that crypto is not just the coolest MAGA crypto-brothers you see online,” G Clay Miller, one of the organizers, told CoinDesk in an interview. (Miller, a former Senate staffer, has a job in the crypto industry working for a leading digital asset consulting firm, but says his political work is separate.)

Miller said 15,000 people registered before the town hall and 1,000 were in attendance at one point.

The main goal of the organizers was to show the outside world that Democrats are interested in getting things done in crypto, despite the record of the Biden administration. It was also to send a “strong message” to the Harris campaign that crypto was paying attention to what the vice president was and wasn’t saying on the issue. Miller said campaign staff listened and were impressed by what they heard.

The big question is why it will take the Democrats to prove to the crypto people that they are serious about “resetting politics”. It’s unclear at this stage exactly what might be included in Schumer’s bill. But bipartisanship at least seems possible.

Patrick McHenry (RN.C.), who chairs the powerful House Financial Services Committee and has been a leading voice for crypto legislation this Congress, tweeted his support for Schumer this morning.