Kamala Harris has spoken publicly about crypto for the first time, pledging support for the industry while stressing consumer protections.

United States Vice President Kamala Harris made her first public statement about crypto during her US presidential election campaign. In comments made during a Wall Street fundraiser, Harris vowed to encourage investment in artificial intelligence and digital assets.

“We will partner together to invest in America’s competitiveness, to invest in America’s future. We will encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets while protecting our consumers and investors,” Harris said at a fundraiser in Manhattan, Bloomberg reported on Sept. 22.

“We will create a safe business environment with consistent and transparent rules of the road,” Harris said. “We will invest in semiconductors, clean energy and other industries of the future, and we will cut needless bureaucracy.”

It’s the first time Harris has publicly remarked about crypto since she became the Democratic Party’s presidential frontrunner. Her Republican rival, Donald Trump, has also worked to secure support from the crypto industry.

The industry has been speculating whether Harris would take a different approach to crypto than President Joe Biden, who some have seen as unfriendly to the sector.

In August, Harris’ senior campaign adviser, Brian Nelson, hinted she would support crypto policies if she wins the presidential election in November. However, she said the industry needs “rules of the road,” as some companies have collapsed.

“This is an important and constructive statement from Kamala Harris,” Coinbase policy chief Faryar Shirzad said in a Sept. 22 X post.

“It’s not nearly as forward-leaning as the concrete and visionary positions taken by Donald Trump, but it’s still notable because she recognizes digital asset innovation as being important and on par with AI,” Shirzad added.

Source: Faryar Shirzad

Alexander Grieve, vice president of government affairs at venture firm Paradigm, called Harris’ remarks “encouraging” on X, adding that regardless of who wins in November, “this should be the last anti-crypto administration.”

“This is progress and progress is good,” crypto venture firm Variant’s legal chief Jake Chervinsky wrote on X. “But ‘while protecting our consumers and investors’ could mean a lot of things.”

“The anti-crypto army uses ‘consumer protection’ as a smoke screen to conceal their attempts to destroy our industry,” he claimed. “I, for one, want to see policy details.”

Crypto has become a campaign issue. US crypto companies, including Coinbase, Ripple and Gemini, have spent nearly $120 million to influence November’s elections, the Public Citizen reported in August.

Trump has already released four non-fungible token collections, backed his family’s crypto platform, and has closely embraced the crypto industry.

He’s promised to be a “crypto president” and to sack US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, whose agency has launched multiple enforcement actions against the country’s most prominent crypto players.

Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck in national polls, with Harris ahead of Trump by only 2.9 percentage points, according to Sept. 22 FiveThirtyEight data.