"The DeFi Defender: The Election That Could Shape Crypto's Future"
Description: In this episode of the DeFi Defender, we dive into the most pivotal election in crypto history. With the presidential race on the line, we explore which candidate could steer the future of crypto in the U.S. and the roles that both legal frameworks and mainstream adoption play. Will the next administration foster growth, or will regulatory hurdles slow innovation? We discuss John Deaton’s surprising challenge against Senator Elizabeth Warren, Trump’s strategic partnership with Elon Musk on Twitter, and the meme culture that has taken this election cycle by storm. Tune in for insights into how this election could influence crypto regulations, the SEC’s stance, and the potential impact on the mainstream adoption of digital assets.
GM, everybody, welcome to another installment of the DeFi Defender.
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It is Monday, the day before the most consequential election in all of crypto.
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And the big question that lingers is which candidate is going to carry the day.
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And it's not only the presidential election that really has a pivotal impact on the
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future of crypto,
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but we've got other races,
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including John Deaton going against Senator Elizabeth Warren.
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That race proves to be interesting.
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I think the overarching theme that we can take away from all of this is the
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importance of the law when it comes to crypto,
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because especially in the United States,
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if we don't get the legal framework right for this technology,
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sure,
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of course,
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the hardcore crypto believers are going to continue to use the technology,
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are going to continue to grow,
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but
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If we're going to see mainstream adoption of this technology,
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then the candidate that occupies the White House is going to dictate whether we're
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going to see a more relaxed agenda when it comes to crypto regulation.
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We know that Trump has been very vocal that he intends to fire Gary Gensler if he should take office.
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Kamala Harris has talked about wanting to do more in the digital asset space to
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encourage innovation and growth.
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However,
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we don't have a whole lot of meat on the bones as to what that substance looks like
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from her perspective.
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So it's very curious to see how this thing is going to unfold.
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One interesting observation about this from my perspective is that one candidate
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has most definitely leveraged the biggest media outlet in the world,
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and that is Elon Musk and Twitter X.
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Trump has clearly figured out how to engage on Twitter in a very effective way.
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a way that the Harris team, frankly, hasn't really executed.
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We know that the Biden administration had announced that they had a director of
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memes that they had brought on board,
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but I haven't seen much traction come to that since that announcement.
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What is fascinating to me about Trump and how he's approaching this election cycle
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is that he has figured out the viral power of memes
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And it can be any number of memes.
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Remember that Trump is actually the first candidate to ever have,
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to my knowledge,
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presidential candidate or former president to ever have a Pepe meme card.
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So already he's pretty well established in the crypto meme culture.
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He's launched the DeFi protocol through his family.
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He's launched NFTs.
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He's talked very,
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very vocally about what he wants to see Bitcoin be as far as a potential strategic
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national reserve for the United States.
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But we're unclear on how far all of those agendas are going to go forward once he
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gets into the White House.
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But he's definitely given more in the way of concrete positions on crypto.
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Pairing with Elon Musk has proven to be a very powerful thing for Trump as well in his campaign.
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There's no denying that Elon has leveraged his platform and his huge following to support Trump.
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And he's also sort of weaved into this the meme culture.
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If you were not living under a rock this weekend, you definitely saw that New York,
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Animal Protective Services executed a raid on a social media influencer who rescues animals.
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and had Peanut the squirrel and Fred the raccoon.
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And for whatever reason,
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they elected to go in and seize these animals and immediately,
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from what I understand,
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euthanize these animals,
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which is unfortunate because I think that that was a true denial of due process for
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the owner of these animals.
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He didn't have the chance to go and argue his case and see if he could maybe get in
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compliance with proper licensing.
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if maybe there was an alternative settlement.
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Of course,
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Elon seized upon this and talked about the fact that this was unprecedented
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government intervention,
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that if the government is comfortable raiding your house and taking your precious
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squirrel and your raccoon and euthanizing them without due process,
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then what stops them from doing far worse when the stakes are higher?
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This, of course, turned into a viral meme coin on both sides.
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You've got Fred,
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you've got Peanut,
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the meme coin that just absolutely peanut for purposes of illustration went
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parabolic this weekend on the news.
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Elon definitely, when he gets a meme coin in his line of sights, will promote it.
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And there's volatility on both sides of that.
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Not here to talk about the trade on that meme coin,
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but simply to talk about the fact that it further illustrates how Trump understands
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how to seize on the meme culture because
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It was brought up at his rallies.
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It was mentioned, this seizure of Peanut the Squirrel and the execution of Peanut the Squirrel.
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And it's now become a viral election topic for this cycle.
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And we're two days out from the election.
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And I don't think it's gonna have much impact on New York voters,
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but on the national stage,
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it has definitely taken on a life of its own.
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And again,
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that just ties into what I want to talk about a little bit today,
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which is how Trump is able to read the tea leaves when it comes to the meme culture.
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I mean, obviously the meme that went viral of his stance after being clipped by that bullet.
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at one of his rallies and his hand in the air and the fight, fight, fight.
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You can't deny that that has become a viral meme.
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And then you look at the other side, you look at the Harris campaign.
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Have they really leveraged that aspect of engagement with the public?
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Not to that degree.
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Obviously,
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they don't feel comfortable on X because Elon is running X and Elon has made it
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very clear who he's backing in this campaign.
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You do have a Harris presence on X.
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They do utilize it,
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but they're definitely not utilizing it to the extent that Trump is with respect to
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the virality of his posts and the meme culture that he's seized on.
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Harris seems to be taking a different approach, going more through celebrities.
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She's in Pennsylvania today making several appearances,
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and part of her appearances are being on stage with several celebrities.
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We, of course, saw the J-Lo clip.
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She's got, from what I understand, Fat Joe performing today at a concert for her, Lady Gaga.
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So she has definitely taken a different approach in trying to leverage the mainstream media more.
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She appeared as a guest on SNL on Saturday, which stirred some controversy in and of itself.
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was a funny show.
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There's no denying that.
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But you can see she's definitely taking a different approach when it comes to this.
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She is going the more traditional route of leveraging the mainstream media,
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the news outlets,
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and the celebrity impact that she can have to try and move undecided voters.
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Trump, not so much.
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He has gone more the live rallies, the constant pounding and the relentless appearances of
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And having Elon in his corner does make for an interesting dynamic for Trump.
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There is no denying that the virality of Elon's posts definitely amplify his message.
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I'm curious to see,
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and I think it will be something that will be studied in the years to come,
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how the largest...
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social media platform in the world,
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the source of information that has surpassed mainstream media in many respects,
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how is that impacting potential voters here in the United States?
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I know that in our bubble of crypto Twitter,
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we certainly can't ignore what's going on and we can't obviously avoid politics
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coming into the crypto Twitter conversation because let's be frank,
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we're at a precipice here.
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Are we going to see mainstream adoption?
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If we do see mainstream adoption,
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that's going to have to come through better legislation and less enforcement
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regulatory actions by the CFTC and the SEC against the sector.
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specifically the sec has been under fire because it's taken a very very aggressive
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posture in enforcement actions in the crypto space and let's face it i'm a crypto
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lawyer i spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff i spend a lot of time trying
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to help people in this space build i spend a lot of time trying to help people who
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have been charged because of their conduct in this space with criminal offenses so
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there is a lot on the line this election cycle
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I don't know which candidate is gonna ultimately follow through on their promises.
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It seems that actions, as far as crypto Twitter is concerned, definitely speak louder than words.
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We're looking at these risk markets with respect to betting on the outcome of this election,
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polymarket and et cetera.
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And we're seeing that as far as the crypto native culture is concerned,
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that is definitely front and center.
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People are more or less ignoring the public polls and looking more at the betting
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markets when it comes to trying to predict what's going to happen here.
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I don't know.
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I'm here for it, and I'm definitely observing it.
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I want to see the industry catch on and get mainstream traction.
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So I am hopeful that whoever wins this election and whoever assumes power at the
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end of the day is going to wake up and realize that the crypto voting bloc is a
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very big
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Strong block.
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No denying that Trump has raised a lot of money from the crypto sector.
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Probably has out-fundraised Harris when it comes to soliciting from the Web3 and crypto world.
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And these people are going to have expectations that he deliver.
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Obviously, Harris tried.
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She tried to go in the direction of trying to entice some crypto culture and trying
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to win over some crypto voters through Mark Cuban.
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Mark Cuban had expressed an interest in wanting to potentially take over the SEC,
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but that has sort of backfired for the campaign a little bit because his recent
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posts have kind of
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been controversial with respect to women and engagement of Trump women voters.
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And he's sort of walked back a bit by the campaign and not necessarily front and center anymore.
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I don't know how much of a voice he's going to have in the White House if Harris
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should win when it comes to advocating for better crypto regulation.
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But remember,
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it's not just the White House that's on the line here,
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because we also have the John Deaton race.
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Senator Warren, who has been a very, very vocal
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vocal advocate against crypto and her quote war on crypto.
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I think as a campaign, uh,
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position that has backfired badly for her.
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If you tuned into either of the Deaton Warren debates, you saw that she did not fare well.
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John came across as a very, very strong candidate, very strong grasp on the issues.
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I think he came across as much more authentic and approachable to voters because
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John has walked the walk.
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He's come from nothing and built himself tremendous resume and
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If he should flip that race and if he should win that Senate seat,
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well,
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that would certainly take a lot of the momentum away from the anti-crypto army
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because it is very clear that Warren,
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who has a lot of power and a lot of influence in the White House,
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has definitely shaped the agenda.
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I have expressed previously my concerns about if Warren loses this election and
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Where does her career go from there?
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And one of the more terrifying scenarios for me is that Warren gets the mantle as chair of the SEC.
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If that were to happen,
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and again,
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that's just me speculating and reading tea leaves,
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but if she's out of her Senate seat and she's looking for another position,
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could it be treasury secretary?
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Could it be chair of the SEC?
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If Harris decides to ask
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Gensler has stepped down in order to offer an olive branch to the crypto sector.
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Obviously a lot of ifs here in all of this.
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So those are kind of the things that I'm looking at today.
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Thanks for tuning in.
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Give this a share and a like, and if you enjoy it, I hope to bring more of this to you.
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Sort of experimenting now a little bit more with the live video content because I
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think the algorithm seems to like that a little bit more.
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But I'll be back with more of these.
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Obviously, we'll wait and see how this run up to the election plays out.
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And if there's any more bombshell memes that go public, certainly curious to see how that all plays out.
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Thanks, everyone, for tuning in.
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I hope you all have a great day.
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Happy Monday.
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