Democratic Donors Push for Kamala Harris to Appear at Upcoming Crypto Conference

Editor’s note: This story and its headline were updated after publication to remove the names of Democratic donors who were erroneously mentioned.

Big democratic donors are pushing for Blockworks to book presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to speak at its upcoming crypto conference, as crypto enthusiasts turn their attention toward a U.S. presidential election that some believe is a referendum on the mainstreaming of crypto. 

The crypto conference organizers are exploring the possibility of securing Vice President Harris at its U.S. politics-focused Permissionless event from October 9 to 11 at the behest of these donors, Blockworks founder Jason Yanowitz told Decrypt.

Those donors have even offered to facilitate talks between Harris’s representatives and Blockwork’s conference organizers, who are aiming to “pull people from both sides [of the political aisle],” Yanowitz said.

“[They’re] basically saying, ‘We’d like to set this up for you,” Yanowitz said, adding Blockworks has not heard from the campaign “directly.” “We’re getting pushed by some of the biggest Democratic donors to have her be there.” 

Mike Novogratz, CEO and founder of Galaxy Digital and a well-known Democrat, will be speaking at the event, and has been urging the crypto community to not turn its back on Harris. Yanowitz declined to comment on whether Novogratz was brokering a possible appearance.

Novogratz did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.

GOP Presidential nominee Donald Trump gave a pro-crypto speech that wooed some members of the crypto community at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday. Trump, who was initially anti-crypto, has executed an about-face and now says that he will fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler “on day one” of his administration.  He also said he would create a strategic Bitcoin “stockpile” for the U.S.

Blockworks’ conference organizers are also in talks to host Republican and Democratic politicians from the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate as speakers at the event, including “most of the pro-crypto Democrats. The goal is to strike a more bipartisan tone at Permissionless, contrasting the “Republican-heavy” focus of Bitcoin 2024, Yanowitz said. They are also “actively” in touch with RFK Jr.’s team.

“It’s our duty… to tell both sides of the story,” Yanowitz told Decrypt. He added that Permissionless is on track to be the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency conference of the second half of 2024 in terms of ticket sales, with demand for the event already “exceeding all of our expectations.”

Organizers and attendees of the Tennessee event were angry that Harris seemingly ignored their invitation. However, a number of U.S. Secret Service agents that Decrypt spoke to pointed out that given that President Joe Biden stepped aside so recently—on July 21—it was highly unlikely that Harris could have attended the Bitcoin conference even if she had wanted to. 

“Such an invitation would need to be offered several weeks in advance of the event,” one former agent told Decrypt. “The timeline you mentioned of three days would not be sufficient.”

Stephen Graves contributed to this story.