🟪 Common ground

In the months ahead, I hope the crypto community finds more cause for unity than division.

Author

Michael McSweeney
November 03, 2024

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This week, long-time crypto reporter Laura Shin came out with a very fine piece in Time that, in essence, called on the Democrats and US VP Kamala Harris to fully embrace crypto — that is, to enact policies that enable the technology to flourish, not merely exist.

“If liberals, progressives, and Democrats take a fresh look at crypto without preconceived judgments, they will see much that aligns with their ideals,” she wrote. “I urge Vice President Harris to reject the politicization of this world-changing technology, and instead, embrace it to help propel her to victory.”

I agree with Laura. One wonders how much of the past decade might have played out had Democrats (and more than a few late-coming Republicans) seen the opportunity instead of a garden of would-be FTXs waiting to bloom. Instead, we got Gary Gensler alternately scolding the crypto ecosystem on CNBC or before a Congressional committee, or— more often than not — issuing a series of punitive fines.

We’re days away from the US presidential election, with much of the crypto space throwing their weight (and dollars) behind a political party with a proven inability to govern and a leader whose branded crypto business failed to gin up much investor interest. While I believe Trump’s fealty to crypto is directly proportionate to the dollars deposited in his various campaign and related PAC accounts, I completely understand why he has garnered that support: Democrats have left the US crypto industry in the cold.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t highlight another point Laura made: a general reluctance among progressive people in crypto to share their leanings. I wonder if this has to do with the, er, particular atmosphere generated on X or the notion that to support left-leaning causes means you are an enemy of crypto. Perhaps it’s a bit of both.

Gone are the days of crypto when one could hail from this or that political leaning and not be pilloried for it. I don’t think I’m innocent here — years ago I used to endlessly scrap on then-Twitter with Trump-supporting accounts. What did I get out of it? Animosity and blocks.

In the months ahead, I hope the crypto community finds more cause for common ground than division. I think we’ll need it.

And now, on to the roundup:

— Michael McSweeney

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MANTRA Chain’s mainnet has officially launched, marking a significant step towards their vision of becoming the preferred ledger of record for tokenized RWAs. While features of the Mainnet will continue to develop, users can already access the following notable activities:

  • Bridge $OM from ERC-20 to Mainnet to gain access to future RWA drops

  • Stake $OM to help secure the network and earn onchain staking rewards

  • Earn KARMA by completing new missions on mainnet

While 2024 has been a landmark year for MANTRA, including strategic collaborations with UAE real estate giant MAG and Zand Bank, the launch of the Mainnet will open the door for significant movement in the real-world asset space.

It’s sunny times for memecoins on Solana. Empire’s David Canellis guest-spotted on Lightspeed week, bringing the data to bear. Check it out.

Do the world’s biggest crypto exchange and the world’s biggest stablecoin have a lot in common? More than you might think, actually.

Has crypto built a trust bridge too far? When it comes to Tether and the rumored/vociferously denied US sanctions, we might see how that plays out, Byron wrote this week.

Tales from the crypto crypt? Not really — NFTs are, in some ways, still very much alive. Donovan Choy breaks it all down.

Oh, the times are a-changin’ — including, perhaps, the dominance of centralized or offchain crypto exchanges. Could their L2 dalliances spell the end of their core design and signal a move to a purely onchain future? Maybe! Empire digs in.

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Not investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss and is offered to US customers through Payward Interactive, Inc. View legal disclosures at kraken.com/legal/disclosures.