Crypto Is a ‘Purple Issue’: Circle’s Jeremy Allaire

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said during an interview on CNBC that crypto is already a “purple,” or bipartisan issue, but more needs to be done to solidify this status, or the U.S. will miss the opportunity to lead in this space.

“What’s interesting is that if you look at what happened over the past year, you actually saw a lot of bipartisan work getting done. Crypto, in many ways, has been treated as a bipartisan issue for quite some time,” he said. “You saw major bills in stablecoin, major bills in market structure advancing, and so it looked like this was a purple issue.”

Allaire is one of the many voices calling for bipartisanship on crypto. In a recent interview with CoinDesk, Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, said that technology should transcend the political divide.

While some bipartisan work has been done to advance legislation, Allaire also criticized the current administration for missing opportunities to lead in the crypto industry, arguing that its policies have driven jobs overseas, stifled innovation, and left crucial decisions to the courts instead of Congress.

“They’ve made the cost of building in this space extremely prohibitive,” he said. “That is not how a new technology industry should be developed. They’ve really missed the beat on that.”

Allaire said that this lack of leadership has caused the U.S. to fall behind other regions, such as Europe, which have moved ahead with comprehensive regulation.

“I think what the industry is looking for is clear statements, from the existing White House, and clear statements from Harris as part of her economic policy agenda,” he said, noting that the Harris campaign has been reaching out to the industry to learn more about the asset class.

But does former President Trump have all the answers? In late July, the Republican candidate made an appearance at the BTC 2024 conference in Nashville, but has not said much on the issue since. During a recent X space interview between Trump and Elon Musk, the asset class went unmentioned.

Allaire mentioned that while Trump himself might not have a deep grasp of the issues, “what does seem clear is that a lot of the people around him and his advisers have a somewhat sophisticated view on the topic.”

While the crypto community has speculated that Trump might support some bold moves, such as making Bitcoin a reserve currency, Allaire seemed doubtful about the likelihood of Trump’s commitment to such ideas.

“It’s hard to know that, obviously,” he concluded.