The 2024 United States presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, has disclosed his plans to curb the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) control and government involvement in the crypto space if elected.
In an exclusive interview with CoinDesk.tv earlier today, Ramaswamy stated his commitment to ousting most SEC officials and facilitating an environment for digital assets to thrive as commodities.
Rolling out my “Three Freedoms of Crypto” policy framework at the North American Blockchain Summit this morning in Texas. Since the inception of crypto, the shadow government in the administrative state in Washington, D.C., and its cronies on Wall Street have tried to quash its… pic.twitter.com/eo2oUTlVMf
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) November 16, 2023
Ramaswamy, representing the Republican party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is currently the only candidate with a comprehensive crypto framework.
He noted that his framework will protect software developers and create more blockchain freedom. To achieve this, the presidential candidate will introduce the “Three Freedoms of Crypto” policy.
This policy includes protecting developers from prosecution based on their codes, preventing federal agencies from creating rules that restrict self-hosted wallets, and ensuring the freedom for blockchain projects to thrive.
“Any unconstitutional regulation the US Congress did not explicitly give the SEC to will be null and void. This will apply to most regulations governing the crypto industry,” he added.
While supporting the government’s pursuit of bad actors in the industry, Ramaswamy stressed the importance of distinguishing between developers’ codes and the platforms themselves.
He referenced the Coinbase-backed Tornado Cash laundering case, where a hacker executed a hostile takeover, resulting in a loss of over $1 billion on May 20, 2023.
On 2023/05/20 at 07:25:11 UTC, Tornado Cash governance effectively ceased to exist. Through a malicious proposal, an attacker granted themselves 1,200,000 votes. As this is more than the ~700,000 legitimate votes, they now have full control.https://t.co/nY87XmrYgT pic.twitter.com/h9qjc3xRqz
— samczsun (@samczsun) May 20, 2023
The attack was done by bypassing the blockchain protocol through its governance mechanism. This led the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to arrest the code developers and charge them with money laundering.
The GOP candidate stressed that the DOJ money laundering litigation against the developers was wrong.
“There needs to be a distinction between the code itself, which is protected, and the people who misuse it to steal. This is lacking today in the crypto industry. It is likened to freedom of speech – freedom to code,” he added.
Thank you @VivekGRamaswamy for supporting the freedom to code!
We now have a clear front-runner for most pro-crypto presidential candidate for 2024.
Lead us to freedom, and we’ll follow you. https://t.co/qTHOWpZB1p
— Josh Fraser (@joshfraser) November 16, 2023
Rounding up, Ramaswamy highlighted the industry’s current lack of clarity from the SEC and other regulators.
“What we’re going to have is rescinding any of those regulations allowing the regulatory state to go after perfectly legal behavior, but by claiming that somehow it shouldn’t exist because they don’t like it. All of that can end on my watch,” he said.
Vivek Ramaswamy in GOP Top Four Candidates Poll
Ramaswamy is currently one of the top runners of the GOP. According to polling data, he maintains 5% support in a hot-red arena dominated by Donald Trump, the former president of the US.
One aspect distinguishing him from other candidates is his enthusiastic support of digital assets as a financial innovation.
While making predictions about the election may be early and speculative at this stage, some crypto communities believe he has what it takes to propel a new paradigm shift that benefits developers and other market players.
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