Democratic candidate Dean Phillips, gearing up for the 2024 presidential elections, pointed out that most Congress members fail to understand crypto assets. Speaking at the Crypto Presidential Forum in New Hampshire, Phillips admitted that he does not know everything about financial technology and cryptocurrencies.
Phillips criticized current President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump for their approaches to the crypto market. Addressing the crowd in New Hampshire as the third presidential candidate, Phillips made significant statements about the crypto market, saying, “Right now, I think that the leading two candidates for the presidency of the United States, both on the left and the right, are absolutely unfit to understand this issue, prepare us for it, foresee it, and take us into the next century. Joe Biden and Donald Trump are not the right people to carry us forward at their age and at this stage in their lives.”
Phillips personally stated that he has not invested in crypto assets like Bitcoin or NFTs and added that any potential investments would be made through a blind trust fund. He explained this as a way to avoid conflicts of interest as a presidential candidate and legislator.
Congress members are required to disclose their investments, including cryptocurrency units, but there is no significant sanction for legislative members who delay filing processes. All presidential candidates speaking in New Hampshire are trailing President Biden and Trump by double digits in various polls.
Ramaswamy, one of the most vocal Republican candidates on crypto assets, released a crypto-focused policy platform at the North America Blockchain Summit in November. Trump, despite launching his own NFT series, has rarely made public statements about cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, President Biden issued an executive order in 2022 to create a regulatory framework for crypto assets. Under the Biden administration, Justice Department officials have accused former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, and former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky of criminal activities.