Hello and welcome. You are listening to Patrick Boyle on Finance, a podcast exploring ideas from quantitative finance,

examining events occurring in markets right now and financial history to see what lessons can be taken away,

including interviews with some of the most interesting people in the world of finance. To learn more about the podcast, visit onfinance.org.

With a bit over a month to go till the US elections this November, it might surprise you to learn

that the crypto industry has spent almost $120 million already this year in political

contributions, meaning that crypto makes up for almost half of all corporate political

contributions in this election cycle.

I'm sure you've seen all of the political adverts telling you how important this industry

is to the average American

and how you should vote for a crypto-friendly candidate. No? Well, that would be because

that's not how the advertisements work. The contributors know that the average American

doesn't care one bit about crypto.

When the super PACs funded by the crypto industry spent money to influence races, either by attacking crypto-sceptics or boosting crypto supporters, the ads never mention crypto at all.

A few of you are possibly nodding your head saying, yep, it'll be Trump, he'll be on their

payroll.

After all, he famously called Bitcoin a scam against a dollar in 2021, and then a bit over a year

later licensed his image for a series of NFTs.

This summer he even flew to Nashville to speak at a Bitcoin conference,

where he said that if he was elected, he would fire the head of the SEC and appoint someone

who will build the future, not block the future. He even promised to create a strategic

crypto reserve, whatever that is, saying that the United States

will be the crypto capital off the planet, I guess overtaking El Salvador.

...