John Deaton, a crypto-friendly attorney from Massachusetts, won the Republican primary in Massachusetts with a big win. Deaton received a lot of support from well-known people in the cryptocurrency industry. He is a strong advocate for Ripple. Hackers accessed the X accounts of Trump family members to spread a fake token linked to World Liberty Financial. A new survey shows that crypto users are very supportive of Donald Trump.
John Deaton Triumphs at Massachusetts
John Deaton, a crypto-friendly attorney from Massachusetts, won the Republican nomination in Massachusetts’ U.S. Senate primary with a resounding victory. Deaton, a former Marine who is a vocal advocate of Ripple(XRP), has been a Marine for over 20 years. Deaton defeated two Republican candidates including Bob Antonellis, an industrial engineer and Ian Cain, the president of Quincy’s city council. Deaton, who has 64% of his votes so far counted, will face Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren for the November elections.
Massachusetts Live Voting Results (Source:Politico )
Warren, who is running for a third term in office, is known for her criticism of the crypto-industry. She has introduced several bills to restrict the growth of digital assets in the United States due to concerns that range from drug abuse and terrorism. Warren, an influential senator on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, has been a strong advocate for the tightening of regulations in the crypto sector.
Deaton received major support from the crypto industry, such as the Winklevoss Twins and Ripple executives. Commonwealth Unity Fund (a crypto-political action committee) contributed over $1 million in support of Deaton’s Senate campaign.
Deaton also received contributions from Ripple’s Chris Larsen, Brad Garlinghouse and Gemini founders Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss. SkyBridge Capital co-founder Anthony Scaramucci and Kraken cofounder Jesse Powell were among the other major donors. Deaton had raised nearly $1.7 million by July 31 for his Senate race.
Deaton did not mention crypto at all in his speech on social media, despite his close ties with the industry. Deaton filed an amicus curiae brief in early 2018 on behalf of Coinbase’s customers to support the company in their legal fight against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hacking Trump Family X accounts
The X accounts belonging to Lara Trump (wife of Eric Trump) and Tiffany Trump (daughter of Donald Trump), were hacked Tuesday night to promote a crypto token that was allegedly linked to World Liberty Financial. This is a new crypto project promoted recently by the Trumps. They posted “official” blockchain addresses of World Liberty Financial. Lara Trump stated that World Liberty Financial’s project goal was to use $WL as the governance token on Solana in order to support the DeFi lending protocol.
Eric Trump, shortly after the posts had been made on X, announced that Lara’s and Tiffany’s profiles were compromised. The addresses also posed as a scam, he warned. World Liberty Financial issued an alert to confirm the hacks. They also urged the public not to click on any links, tokens or other information shared by the compromised accounts.
At least three tokens purportedly associated with Donald Trump have surfaced. Martin Shkreli promoted a DJT coin, which he claimed was created with Barron Trump, other developers and the Trump family. However, no Trump member has confirmed their involvement. Restore the Republic, another project that briefly achieved a valuation of $155 million before it collapsed.
The hacks happened just hours after details were shared about World Liberty Financial that described it as a borrowing-and-lending DeFi platform planning to issue a token called WLFI. The project has not been officially launched yet, but the whitepaper indicated Donald Trump would be the “chief cryptocurrency advocate.” The project also involves Eric, Donald Jr. and Barron Trump.
Crypto owners favor Trump
According to a recent poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University, former U.S. president Donald Trump’s outreach towards the crypto community appears to be successful. This poll, released by Fairleigh Dickinson University on August 30, found that many crypto owners are more inclined to support Trump than Vice President Kamala Harris for the U.S. Presidential election.
Only 38% of crypto owners preferred Harris, while 50% supported Trump. In the case of non-crypto holders, Harris leads by 12 points. In this group, 41% preferred Trump and 53% said they’d vote for Harris.
Results of the poll (Source: Fairleigh Dickinson University )
Trump’s efforts to reach out to the crypto-industry are paying off, according to this poll. Professor Dan Cassino of Government and Political Science at Fairleigh Dickinson shared his opinion that, while it may seem as if crypto users are a relatively small group, they could have a much greater influence than people realize due to the increasing prevalence of cryptocurrency ownership.
This poll of over 800 voters in the United States found that 15 percent either own cryptocurrency or non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) or previously did. The percentage of respondents is consistent with recent surveys.
The poll found that crypto-owners tend to be younger men, and to belong to racial minorities. 13% of White voters reported crypto ownership as compared with 17% of Black and Hispanic voters.
Results of the poll (Source Fairleigh Dickinson University )
In the past, Republicans struggled with attracting young people and black voters. But support for cryptocurrency could be a way to win these groups over. During this current election, cryptocurrency companies have contributed heavily to political action groups (PACs). Top contributors include Ripple and Coinbase. Crypto firms have contributed almost half of corporate donations to PACs.
Paul Grewal Predicts a Pro-Crypto Congress
Paul Grewal is the Chief Legal officer at Coinbase and he’s optimistic that both the major U.S. Presidential candidates will engage with the crypto-industry in 2024. Grewal stated in a Bloomberg interview on Sept. 3, that Coinbase had been in touch with both Trump and Harris’ campaigns. In a Bloomberg interview on Sept. 3, Grewal said that Coinbase has been in contact with representatives from both Trump and Harris’ campaigns.
Grewal, despite the regulatory actions of the current administration, especially through SEC chair Gary Gensler was encouraged after discussions with the Harris Campaign about a possible new approach to cryptocurrency regulation.
Grewal interviewing Bloomberg (Source:Blooomberg )
Grewal said that the crypto industry was also concerned about leadership changes at the SEC and the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21). The FIT21 Act passed in the House of Representatives last May is awaiting Senate approval. It could provide some much-needed regulatory clarity for the industry.
Grewal said that, regardless of whether the results of presidential elections or individual elections are favorable to cryptography, a procrypto Congress is likely to emerge. He hopes that bipartisan legislation that offers structure and clarity to the crypto industry will be passed throughout the autumn.
