Why I’m a single-issue crypto voter

Given the events of the past two years, everyone in the United States in both parties should be single-issue voters in favor of crypto having a level playing field. In particular, we should support all politicians who oppose the Biden administration’s extreme efforts to kill the industry in the United States, regardless of party, Republican or Democrat.

This stance is not about being pro-crypto, it is about being pro-fairness. Today, the actions of the executive branch target the crypto industry, but who will be the next target under future administrations? Fossil fuel producers? Abortion providers? Public sector unions? Gun manufacturers? Green energy companies? The press?

As a people, we cannot allow government misbehavior of this sort, and it must be our primary source of concern. If we cannot secure fair treatment under the law for all, every other right we enjoy as Americans is threatened.

Why do I believe this?

In the beginning of US regulatory engagement, we had a few strict crypto regulators like the New York Department of Financial Services with its BitLicense regime. Even so, those regulators intended for crypto did exist, just within the rules.

In 2022, however, we began to see regulators take it upon themselves to judge that an industry should not exist and begin to take any and all actions to destroy it. As a result, we have seen a staggering variety of inappropriate and, in some cases, illegal actions from federal agencies against crypto.

The SEC has been sanctioned by a federal judge in Utah for lying in court, bankrupting a business and destroying lives to get a TRO in the Debt Box case. The SEC treated the BTC ETF application process so inappropriately that it was ultimately overruled by a different federal judge who called its behavior “arbitrary and capricious.” The SEC promulgated a rule on crypto custody called SAB 121 without consulting the industry or other regulators, which is so mechanically broken it has essentially banned regulated financial entities from offering crypto custody and caused both houses of Congress to vote in bipartisan fashion to overrule it.

Additionally, the SEC somehow managed to sue Ripple, Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap Labs while failing completely to sue either FTX, Terraform Labs, Celsius, 3AC or BlockFi before their various collapses harmed countless investors and consumers.

Banking regulators have engaged in similarly inappropriate behavior. From issuing a joint letter in February 2023 that unilaterally called tokens on public blockchains “highly likely to be inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices” to pressuring banks to de-platform their crypto customers without evidence of legal wrongdoing or undue risk through “Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” they have also overreached. The Federal Reserve continues to deny Custodia, a regulated bank in Wyoming, an account.

Across the board, our federal government’s approach to crypto reeks of bias and misconduct. If we cannot trust the federal government to play fair, then all other political positions fade in importance until the checks and balances of the system are restored. In this case, it is important to remember that the ultimate check on both the executive and the legislative branches is the people.

My belief is that crypto deserves fair treatment. While Republicans have been the recent champions of the industry thanks to their pro-business views, forward-thinking Democrat Ritchie Torres wrote an op-ed in 2022 titled “The Liberal Case for Cryptocurrency.” Long after Trump is gone from crypto, Torres and other Democrats will remain. More than 30 Democrats between the House and Senate broke ranks with the administration to vote down SAB 121.

Fair treatment under the law is a stance all Americans of all parties can rally behind. As a long-time Democrat myself, I believe this stance will stand the test of time for both parties. Even politicians who do not care about or even dislike crypto should be able to support the basic point that obeying the law and having fair rules is essential. If they can’t, we should vote them out.

I believe we should vote for any politician, Democrat or Republican, who rejects things like the SEC’s illegal antics in the Debt Box case or the gross misconduct of the head of the FDIC. We must secure the basic fairness of our system and hold accountable those who flagrantly violate it.

That is why I am a single issue voter on this topic. It is not that I am pro-crypto, it is that I am pro-fairness.

Austin Campbell is the founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School. Previously, he has run portfolio management at Paxos for the stablecoins as well as being the chief risk officer of Paxos National Trust, has managed fixed income trading desks at JP Morgan and Citi, and has been a portfolio manager and structurer at Stone Ridge, the parent of NYDIG. He holds a BS in Mathematics from CSU Chico and a MBA from NYU Stern.

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