Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke on cryptocurrency for the first time last weekend.
Why it matters: Crypto has now been acknowledged by both sides in the highest race in the land.
Driving the news: "We will encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets, while protecting our consumers and investors," Harris said Sunday at a Wall Street fundraiser.
What they're saying: "This is a major step forward, but these comments from a closed-door forum stop short of the context needed to understand her presidential intentions," Rashan Colbert, head of policy at the decentralized finance firm Dydx said on X.
"Progress is progress, it needs to start somewhere, and should be encouraged," Hayden Adams, the creator of decentralized exchange Uniswap, wrote on X. "A positive statement on the tech is more than we got under Biden and Trump presidency."
Galaxy Digital's head of research, Alex Thorn, tweeted that Harris' comment wasn't materially different from past statements by the Biden administration.
What we're watching: Specifics. The blockchain community will find it much more convincing if she says something that she will or won't do.
The bottom line: Polymarket has Harris at a 51% chance of winning. Nate Silver puts her at 49.2% in the polls, while his old company, 538, gives her 48.3% — in both cases slightly ahead of her opponent, former President Trump.