Pro-Bitcoin Congressman, Tom Emmer, to Accept Crypto Donations Using BitPay in Reelection Bid

Congressman Tom Emmer, a rep for MN-06, announced that he would be accepting crypto donations in a recently concluded crypto town hall on August 20. This initiative made a debut as the first virtual crypto town hall with a focus on recognizing innovation and boosting adoption to include political stakeholders as well.

The Minnesota Rep, who also chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, noted that he would be accepting a range of crypto assets, including Bitcoin, USDC, Bitcoin Cash, and Gemini’s USD stablecoin. He went on to further clarify with Coindesk that U.S based Bitcoin payment service provider, Bitpay, will handle the transactions donated in crypto.

Notably, this event had been announced last week and was held in collaboration with various stakeholders. They include the Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC) PAC and prominent figures in the crypto industry such as Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. Rep Emmer highlighted that XRP is not a security based on the decentralization value proposed by its ecosystem.

While this is the case, ambiguity around the classification of digital assets by the SEC continues to hinder innovations and expansion, especially in the U.S market. According to Rep Emmer, it is this lack of clarity that might trigger projects like Ripple to flow capital into more friendly jurisdictions,

“Money will go where it’s easiest to flow. And the more government puts in obstacles (and one of them is just inaction), the less opportunity we have to position the U.S. as the leader.”

Given that Emmer is also a member of the House Financial Services Committee, the Republican rep vowed to scale crypto-related education to his peers. Emmer joins Senator Rand Paul, who accepted BTC donations as early as 2016 and former Democrat presidential candidate, Andrew Yang. Perianne Boring, the CDC president, however, highlighted that Emmer’s approach is more personal as opposed to being a mere cutting edge in his campaign,

“He’s engaging the community. It’s more than just adding a button on his campaign website. It’s about including more people in the political process, especially young people who prefer to leverage advanced technologies.”