Democratic National Committee Chair Met With Bitcoin Miner Marathon, Exec Says

Marathon Digital executives met earlier this month with Democratic National Committee Chair Jamie R. Harrison and his advisors, the Bitcoin mining firm’s Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Jayson Browder told Decrypt. The revelation is another sign that Democrats are taking heed of the crypto crowd, despite the industry’s lack of representation in the party’s newly released platform.

The meeting, which was held on August 5 with Marathon CEO Fred Thiel and Government Affairs Associate Lex Samuels, touched upon ways to mitigate the environmental impacts of Bitcoin mining, in addition to existing efforts to “reduce methane emissions [and] carbon emissions” related to the mining of the coins, said Browder.

The attendees also discussed recent polling data that shows an uptick in retail and institutional investments in crypto in the U.S. The dialogue followed weeks of signals that Democrats have softened their stances on crypto ahead of a presidential election that some experts predict will be decided by a razor-thin margin.

“We spoke to them at a high level on policy that we felt would be favorable to the DNC platform,” Browder told Decrypt last Friday. “They potentially want to engage with our industry on [these issues] and better understand the sort of environmental concerns that some members of the party might have.”

It isn’t immediately clear whether the DNC has been in touch with other cryptocurrency companies ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week. Committee representatives did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment on the matter. 

The DNC met with Marathon roughly a week before Democrats unveiled their 2024 platform late Sunday. The 92-page platform does not reference cryptocurrencies or blockchain networks, marking a stark contrast to the Republican platform, which was released earlier this summer. 

The DNC’s omission of crypto in its platform comes after Marathon submitted a list of digital currency policy recommendations to the party this summer, according to Browder.

Democrats warm to crypto? 

Crypto advocates are no doubt watching to see whether Democrats will make a nod to the industry this week at the Democratic National Convention, where party members are expected to formally select Vice President Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee.

Harris has been regarded with skepticism by cryptocurrency founders such as Messari’s Ryan Selkis and Gemini’s Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss due to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s crackdown on digital asset firms across much of the Biden-Harris administration.

The Democratic Party committee officials’ meeting with Marathon executives is the latest signal that Democrats are increasingly open to engaging with—and in some instances, embracing—the cryptocurrency industry, however.

Earlier this year, several Democratic congressmen allied with Republicans to overturn SAB 121, an SEC rule that detractors say has stifled digital asset innovation in the U.S. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats hosted a Crypto4Harris roundtable discussion attended by prominent crypto industry leaders from BitGo to Coinbase last week.

The party’s warming to digital asset firms comes as pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake pours millions of dollars into backing Democratic politicians running in congressional races in key battleground states, such as Michigan and Arizona.

Fairshake has raised a war chest of more than $200 million, making it one of the largest political action committees in the 2024 election cycle, as of publication time, according to data from nonprofit research organization OpenSecrets.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to clarify the date of the meeting and the attendees from Marathon.