On Friday evening, May 31, around 5:00 PM, President Biden delivered the coup de grace to his relationship with voters who prioritize the development and availability of blockchain technology within the United States when he vetoed a bill to overturn SEC Bulletin 121 (SAB 121).
SAB 121 effectively prohibits regulated financial institutions from custodying digital assets on behalf of customers by requiring them to consolidate those assets onto their own balance sheets (like FTX did) and hold capital against them. In November 2023, the Government Accountability Office concluded SAB 121 was a "rule" and, as such, should have been submitted to Congress for approval or disapproval under the Congressional Review Act. Blockchain proponents thus view Biden's veto of Congress' SAB 121 override as yet another example of the administration's unprincipled and undemocratic hostility toward technological innovation.
Biden's veto comes at a pivotal time in crypto politics. For the last several years, U.S.-based blockchain users and builders have endured significant abuse at the hands of Biden-appointed bureaucrats. Many have been forced overseas to pursue their careers for fear of being fined, shut down, or even incarcerated for writing, publishing, or using code (and no, I'm not referring to obvious criminals like Sam Bankman-Fried). Many have been debanked. All have lost the ability to easily anonymize their onchain transactions.
Yet the crypto world grew hopeful when, on May 28, the SEC approved a rule paving the way for spot ETH ETFs. That decision took virtually all analysts by surprise and, to some commentators, represented a clear admission by the agency that, notwithstanding Chair Gensler's repeated assertions since 2022 that "the law is clear" and "the vast majority" of crypto tokens are securities, its hostility toward the industry has, in fact, largely been politically motivated. As if to hammer home the point, a few hours before Biden handed down his veto, a federal judge ordered the SEC to pay $1.8 million in attorneys' fees to a crypto broker after finding "bad faith" dealings and a "gross abuse of power" by the agency.
Biden's veto dashes hopes for a thawing of relations between crypto enthusiasts and the Biden administration. Meanwhile, Trump recently promised to "ensure that the future of crypto...will be made in the USA, not driven overseas," to "support the right to self-custody," and to "keep Elizabeth Warren and her goons away from your bitcoin." (Senator Warren has campaigned on "building an anti-crypto army.") Trump's campaign also began accepting donations in crypto.
While it is difficult to know how many votes might be affected by each candidate's stance on crypto - about 14% of Americans own crypto, and many of them likely vote based on other priorities - a recent Harris Poll survey indicates 21% of voters in swing states consider crypto policy a topic important enough to sway them.