Donald Trump Elects Pro-Crypto JD Vance as Vice President Candidate
Vance personally owns crypto, started a VC, and invested in a decentralized exchange platform.
- Vance labeled SEC Chair Gary Gensler as the “worst person” and criticized his political influence in securities regulation.
- He drafted a bill for a more crypto-friendly regulatory approach and introduced the Financial Regulatory Accountability Act in 2023.
- The market is optimistic about crypto with Vance as VP candidate, reflected by a nearly 4% increase in Bitcoin’s price following the announcement.
Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, born James Donald Bowman, has been announced as Donald Trump’s vice-presidential candidate for the 2024 election. A strong advocate for cryptocurrency, Vance owns Bitcoin and has openly criticized SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
Upon his candidacy announcement, J.D. Vance’s wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, previously clerking for the Supreme Court, resigned as a corporate litigator at the San Francisco law firm Munger, Tolles & Olsen. Notably, this firm is representing Coinbase in its lawsuit against the SEC.
Vance recently drafted a bill to overhaul the regulation of digital assets in the U.S., according to sources. The supposed legislation was set to be even more crypto-friendly than FIT21, passed by the House in June.
J.D. Vance’s Views on Crypto
In a previously mandated annual report, J.D. Vance disclosed holding Bitcoin valued between $100,000 and $250,000 on Coinbase. Additionally, he invested in Ethex Software, a decentralized exchange platform for wallet-to-wallet token trading, and Robinhood.
Vance has also voted to repeal the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) 121, an accounting standard that requires banks to treat customers’ digital assets as liabilities on their balance sheets. He also criticized the agency for handling the Debt Box incident.
The Ohio senator specifically called out SEC Chair Gary Gensler, labeling him as the “worst person” in his view and describing himself as Gensler’s complete opposite.
Vance accused Gensler of injecting too much politics into the securities business, arguing that the SEC appears more inclined to ban tokens with utility while ignoring those without. The Ohio senator believes this approach should be reversed.
Vance also drafted a bill proposing a more crypto-friendly overhaul of how the SEC and CFTC regulate the crypto market. In 2023, he introduced the Financial Regulatory Accountability Act, designed to protect banks from regulatory pressure to sever ties with crypto customers.
Timeline of J.D. Vance’s Career
J.D. Vance was deployed to Iraq as an enlisted Marine in 2005. He attended law school in 2013 and married Usha Chilukuri a year later, in 2014.
In 2016, Vance published “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was later adapted into a Netflix movie, and subsequently moved back to Ohio. That same year, he publicly denounced Trump as “reprehensible,” according to Politico. He was a principal at Mithril Capital, the venture firm founded by GOP donor and former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel.
In 2019, Vance launched a venture capital firm, Narya Capital, with backing from prominent figures like Peter Thiel, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Marc Andreessen, raising $93 million. In 2021, he apologized for his previous criticism of Trump. The following year, he was elected to the Senate with Trump’s endorsement.
Market Reaction to J.D. Vance as VP Candidate
Notable figures who have endorsed J.D. Vance as a positive force for the crypto industry include Scott Johnsson of Van Buren Capital, Sam Lyman of Riot Platforms, and Ryan Sean Adams of Bankless.
When Trump announced his vice-presidential candidate, Bitcoin’s price was around $63,000. Following the announcement, it surged nearly 4% in the past 24 hours, surpassing $65,000.
A Polymarket bet totaling nearly $92.6 million called the Republican VP nominee concluded with J.D. Vance being confirmed as Trump’s vice-presidential candidate. Other contenders included Tim Scott, with bets nearing $4.9 million; Ron DeSantis, over $3.5 million; and Katie Britt, over $3.2 million.
With J.D. Vance as the vice-presidential candidate, the market appears more optimistic about crypto, largely due to his criticisms of Gary Gensler and his personal holdings of Bitcoin.
