Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author: Azuma (@azuma_eth)
The US election will officially begin later today, but in addition to the much-anticipated presidential election, the race for a certain important seat has also attracted much attention from the cryptocurrency industry. Overseas lobbying organizations have even invested tens of millions of dollars in the hope that a "challenger" can bring down the "crypto public enemy" in a high position.
The important race is for the Ohio Senate seat, with the two running for incumbent Senator, Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown, and Republican candidate Bernie Moreno.
The reason why the campaign for this seat has attracted much attention in the industry is that Brown’s current position is Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which is one of the most influential committees in the Senate. The committee has jurisdiction over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)... No need for much introduction, people familiar with the industry know the regulatory influence of these two institutions on cryptocurrencies.
As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Brown has an important influence on deciding which bills need to be submitted to the committee for review or to the parliament for a vote, but Brown himself is an extreme opponent of cryptocurrency, which has caused a large number of cryptocurrency-related bills to be shelved in the committee. The industry generally believes that this has seriously hindered the positive development of the industry.
Sherrod Brown
On the contrary, "challenger" Moreno has long made cryptocurrency a core part of his campaign and has even vowed to fight those who try to "destroy cryptocurrency."
Bernie Moreno
CoinDesk reported in September that the cryptocurrency industry political action committee (PAC) has invested a lot of real money in the Ohio Senate race to support Moreno against Brown. As of September 27, 2024, PACs funded by Coinbase and Ripple Labs have invested $40 million in supporting Moreno. This huge expenditure has enabled Moreno to quickly catch up with Brown in the polls, and some polls even show that Moreno is ahead.
RealClearPolitics poll data shows that Moreno (48%) is currently slightly ahead of Brown (46.3%) by about 1.7 percentage points, and the election situation remains relatively tense.
Ron Hammond, director of government relations at the Blockchain Association, told The Block that the Ohio Senate race may be the most important one for the cryptocurrency industry.
Considering Ohio's status as a swing state, if Moreno succeeds in defeating Brown, it will greatly increase the chances of the Republican Party taking a majority in the Senate. Tim Scott, a Republican senator from North Carolina, is likely to take over Brown's position as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Scott has also recently expressed support for cryptocurrencies and attended the Nashville Bitcoin Conference.
On the other hand, if Moreno fails to defeat Brown and the Democrats take the majority in the Senate, Brown will likely remain in office, continuing his current attitude and influence on cryptocurrencies.
Of course, there are two small probability scenarios. The first is that the Republicans occupy the majority of seats in the Senate and Moreno loses the election. In this case, Scott may still rely on the Republican seat advantage to serve as the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee; the second scenario is that the Democrats occupy the majority of seats in the Senate and Moreno wins the election. At that time, Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is likely to succeed Brown, and Warren is also opposed to cryptocurrencies.
All in all, Moreno’s challenge to Brown is likely to determine the outcome of the future Senate Banking Committee chairmanship. As long as Moreno wins Ohio, the Republican Party will have a greater chance of gaining an advantage in the Senate, thus ending Brown’s high-pressure regulation of cryptocurrencies.
