Messari CEO Reflects on Senate’s Influence on Crypto Industry

Well, I, I'd encourage people to, uh, look into fair shake and, um, uh, I certainly don't wanna take too much credit for it. I think the team that's running, uh, that operation is, is one that I worked with, uh, and, and supported in the 2022 midterms, their, uh, career operatives that have, have run a lot of races and, and have been in this world for a long time. I think they're, you know, the, the creme de la creme and, and they've been, um, really, really solid so far, um, having, having, you know, gone through one cycle and, and, and a really important set of outcomes in, in the 2022 elections where, uh, they ended up supporting 19, candidates that were, were pro crypto or, or, you know, at least solidly neutral. Uh, if you, if you think about some of the progressive and open minded and younger, um, which, um, which will have a compounding effect, um, as we go from, from race to race from cycle to cycle. So, uh really good outcomes, really good team uh there. But, um, the, uh, you know, I, I think the, uh to the extent that I've had an impact on, on that organization and, and some of the political conversation, it's really, I think sounding the alarm on the need to, uh, activate, um, financially in this particular cycle, I think. Um, you know, I, in 2021 was a bull on the single issue, voter thesis, right? If you remember that, I, I think I helped mean that concept uh in, into existence for crypto single issue voters may exist when there is a wealth effect and when people feel like they're doing well, and they feel like there's tremendous opportunity, you know, in a, in a given industry that doesn't exist so much on the way down, right? So we are in a long period of apathy right now. Uh Just as many folks that have invested in, in crypto and in some of those boom days may be under water or they may be awaiting, you know, resolutions to different bankruptcies. So they're not necessarily fans uh of the industry even much less single issue voters. Um And then, you know, kind of add on to that. Uh the fact that I think there, there are a number of folks that um have done well in crypto, but it is not necessarily the end all be all for them to support politically and, and, and yeah, they, I would argue have some luxury political beliefs um because they've had a, a certain financial status and, and, and don't feel the need just to focus on this issue when, when it comes to the elections. Um I've been, as you can imagine, pretty careful about which, even though I've been outspoken, I think I have been pretty careful about which, which battles to pick when it comes to supporting candidates in different elections. Um because people lose their minds uh when, when you talk about politics. Number one, but number two, we want to think about where the real impact is going to be and not just oscillate from one extreme to the other or from, you know, one party that does, doesn't necessarily, uh, like the industry or, or, or play fair to another that, you know, is maybe just in bad as bad, but in other ways and the area that I think we can have the most impact politically in the cycle, uh, knowing that we don't necessarily have as many boots on the ground as many voters, um, that are, are really activated as maybe you would have seen in 2021 during the, the bull period. Um, that's gonna take, uh, really selective investments and key races, particularly in the Senate. Um, I think the, um, ongoing democratic control of the Senate, the US, um, will basically set the crypto industry back to 2030 most people would be better off moving offshore than continue to operate in the US. Um, and that's because of the outsized influence that, that Senator Warren has on the Senate Banking Committee, um which basically controls the agenda in the Senate and, and, and you know, the status quo is to essentially crack down through all of the major financial regulators, whether you're talking about the FDIC and choke 0.2 0.0. Obviously, all of Gary Gss shenanigans, the fed the Treasury, you name it that um control in that chamber. Um really is the most important thing who wins the presidency, who wins the house is almost secondary in this election?