| Everywhere you look, digital-asset investors are jumping for joy at the prospect of a pro-crypto president in the US as Donald Trump makes positive noises about digital assets. As a result, the industry's tolerance for political diversity seems to be wearing thin. Support for Trump's bid to enter the White House in November is widespread in crypto, with everyone from C-Suite executives to day traders coming out in favor of a Republican administration. That excitement reached a fever pitch on Saturday when Trump spoke at a Bitcoin-themed conference in Nashville, revealing his campaign promise to turn the US into the "crypto capital of the planet." Among the loudest crypto-affiliated voices in the Trump camp are Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, BitGo boss Mike Belshe, Messari founder Ryan Selkis and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. Those in the industry who've shown support for the other side of the aisle, however, are few and far in between — likely at least in part because of the online onslaught that comes with expressing such views.
"Crypto defectors to the Democrats this year are traitors," Selkis wrote in a Monday post on X. He stepped down as Messari's CEO earlier this month after criticism mounted regarding the intensity of his rhetoric on the election.  Source: @cameron Replies to social media posts by Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz are full of backlash against his comments in favor of prospective Democrat nominee Kamala Harris, whose campaign has yet to take a stance on crypto. Calls for neutrality also have faced significant denunciation, even against Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin after he wrote a blog post urging investors to remember there are other issues to consider when voting. For some, Trump's policies on topics like immigration make supporting his bid a non-starter. "No matter his campaign's professed views on tech or crypto, some things matter more to me," Marvin Ammori, chief legal officer at decentralized exchange Uniswap, wrote in a July 19 post on X. But siding with the left is a position that pro-Trump industry participants have found difficult to comprehend, given the crackdown on the crypto industry under the Biden administration. In Nashville, Trump's pledge to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler received the biggest cheer of the night, with the level of vitriol aimed at the regulator taking him by surprise. "I didn't know he was that unpopular," Trump joked. Until this election, there were few issues that were able to divide the crypto community so cleanly. The industry's "all in this together" mentality has all but evaporated as November's vote approaches, and it doesn't look likely to return any time soon.
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