Chris Larsen, co-founder of fintech giant Ripple, has made the first documented cryptocurrency donation to U.S. presidential candidate and current Vice President Kamala Harris, joining the political action committee supporting her ( PAC) sent $1 million worth of XRP.
The donation was made to Future Forward USA, one of the major super PACs supporting Harris’ campaign, and came in the form of 1.75 million XRP tokens, according to Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terret.
Future Forward USA accepts crypto donations through Coinbase Commerce and deposits donated funds into a USDC stablecoin pegged to the value of the US dollar to minimize the potential impact of crypto price fluctuations. Convert automatically.
The PAC has raised a total of $200 million, receiving donations through various celebrities including venture capitalist Reid Hoffman and Coinbase itself. Larsen’s donation comes at a time when Ripple itself is still embroiled in a legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The legal battle began after the SEC charged Ripple and two of its executives in 2020 with “raising more than $1.3 billion through an unregistered ongoing offering of digital asset securities.”
Last year, District Judge Annalisa Torres of the Southern District of New York issued a complicated ruling in the case, noting that secondary market sales of XRP cannot be classified as investment contracts because the funds are not traced back to Ripple. .. However, Ripple’s sale of XRP to institutional investors violated securities laws.
In particular, cryptocurrencies are central to the 2024 US presidential election, with both candidates accepting crypto donations. While Harris’ economic plan suggests support for innovative technology, Trump has vowed to support the cryptocurrency industry.
Earlier this year, Donald Trump said in a pro-cryptocurrency speech that there had never been anything like Bitcoin, and claimed that Bitcoin could one day surpass the market capitalization of gold. In his speech, he pledged to support the industry and to retain all the BTC currently held by the US government.
Featured image via Pixabay.
