TheCorporateCounsel.net

The SEC continues to make headlines & honk off crypto bros by targeting industry participants for investigations and enforcement actions.  Now, it turns out that the regulatory crypto crackdown may be an issue in this year’s election, at least according to a recent Harris survey of swing state voters. The poll, which was commissioned by the Digital Currency Group, surveyed 1,201 registered voters in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, and Pennsylvania and found that more than 1-in-5 battleground state voters consider crypto to be a key issue. Here are some of the survey’s other key findings:

– Current crypto ownership among voters is relatively low (14%), and most do not feel knowledgeable about crypto (69%). About one-fifth of voters plan to own crypto in the next six months.

– Nonetheless, nearly a third of voters have positive feelings towards crypto (Crypto-Positive). This bloc of Crypto-Positive voters is consistently more enthusiastic about crypto than voters overall; most associate crypto with positive traits like innovative (62%), promising (50%), and accessible (45%).

– Most voters do not trust elected officials to understand innovative technology like crypto, and more than half are concerned about policymakers stifling innovation via overregulation. The vast majority want policymakers to be sure they understand crypto before regulating.

– Nearly half of voters do not trust political candidates that would interfere with crypto. One-quarter say that enthusiasm towards crypto would make them trust a political candidate more. 30% would be more likely to support a political candidate that is friendly to crypto.

– Of note, crypto regulation does have broad support –the majority of voters overall and nearly half of Crypto-Positive voters are in favor of an overhaul of crypto. Similarly, about 20-25% of voters and one-third of Crypto-Positive voters want elected officials to focus on crypto regulation or protections for crypto investors.

The survey also found that Crypto-Positive voters were more likely than other voters to be young, male, and African American or Hispanic. They were less likely to have a four-year college degree than voters overall but did not show any major differences on household income and political party lean. Finally, the survey found that Ohio voters were more negative toward crypto than voters in other swing states – so hey, I feel seen.

– John Jenkins