Crypto has often come across as apolitical. This is partly due to being seen as existing outside regular financial systems and, going back through crypto history, being outside regular systems really meant that, with early enthusiasts acquiring bitcoin peer-to-peer, sometimes even physically meeting up with sellers and paying in cash.
Such personal mechanisms don’t scale up to mass adoption, but they are bedded in the perception that Bitcoin, and crypto more widely, are separated from banking, financial services and, relatedly, from politics.
Times have changed though, and debate recently has centered on crypto’s access (or lack of access) to banking services and fiat on/off ramps. And, any perceived separation from politics is becoming a bygone chapter, as we increasingly see crypto mechanisms utilized politically while, at the same time, mainstream politicians take firm public stances on crypto.
Warren’s War on Crypto
In the US, Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren explicitly declared last week that she is “building an anti-crypto army.”
I’m in this fight to put our government on the side of working families. Join our re-election campaign today: https://t.co/KuZwvrwkqT pic.twitter.com/fCUcqE9PZM
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 29, 2023
This is part of her proposition to reintroduce the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, which proponents claim is to target criminal activity and protect crypto users, while critics assert that it fails to understand crypto, and will simply drive innovation away from the US.
Furthermore, it’s unclear whether such aggressively crypto-hostile messaging will win support from voters. In November last year, a survey on behalf of digital asset manager Grayscale Investments found that while 79% of Americans believed crypto needed clearer regulation, 21% held crypto, and 53% (including 59% of Democrats) agreed that crypto “represents the future of finance.”
The Politics of NFTs
For those who only associate NFTs with JPEGs of cartoon apes, it may come as a surprise, but there are several NFT projects that take an openly political stance, although, through being connected with the worlds of art and design, the NFT approach tends to exert influence through cultural channels.
Nadya Tolokonnikova
It’s been reported that the Russian authorities have placed Nadya Tolokonnikova, who is a member of the activist band Pussy Riot, on a most wanted list. The charges appear to relate to a 2022 anti-Putin…
