NEW YORK (AP) — A senior adviser to Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign is joining Coinbase’s global advisory council, which already includes several former U.S. senators and President Donald Trump’s ex-campaign manager, as the cryptocurrency exchange broadens its political reach.
David Plouffe, a top Democratic strategist best known as an architect of Barack Obama’s successful 2008 presidential campaign, is the latest addition to the council, joining as the cryptocurrency industry plays an increasingly prominent role in shaping fast-moving legislation in Congress.
The bipartisan involvement reflects how both parties see crypto holders as an important and growing base of potential swing voters they are eager to tap, as well as their efforts to shape — and profit from — the lucrative industry. It also shows the political heft the crypto industry now carries under Trump, with several Democrats and Republicans joining the company's payroll.
The crypto industry was among the largest spenders in the 2024 election. A crypto super political action committee spent over $130 million in 2024 congressional races. Coinbase — the nation's largest crypto exchange — was the super PAC's biggest contributor.
The cryptocurrency industry’s bets are already paying dividends. Congress is now moving quickly on industry-friendly legislation that would create a comprehensive framework for the regulation of digital assets amid a shift in Washington. Trump, a Republican, has pledged to make the U.S. the global capital of cryptocurrency, contrasting with what industry leaders viewed as a stifling regulatory approach under the previous Democratic administration.
Americans may soon be able to invest in crypto in their retirement accounts, after Trump's Labor Secretary repealed a Biden administration guidance that said crypto may not be appropriate for 401ks and IRAs. President Joe Biden's regulators had argued that extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies makes the asset class too risky for Americans trying to save long-term for retirement.
Regardless of how crypto has performed in the past, the ability for Americans to put their retirement funds — roughly $44 trillion in assets — into crypto will lead to billions of dollars in profits for the industry, if even a small portion of Americans put their assets into a cryptocurrency fund.
Trump and his family have also been aggressively expanding their personal business into almost every part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, including raising billions of dollars to buy bitcoin, creating a new stablecoin and launching and promoting a Trump-themed meme coin.
Trump addressed crypto enthusiasts at Coinbase's policy conference in New York via video on Thursday, saying it's “a really big honor” to be called the “first crypto president.”
“Congratulations to everyone at this exciting time for your industry and in our country's life,” Trump said, to applause.
Chris LaCivita, the former co-campaign manager of Trump's 2024 presidential bid, joined Coinbase's advisory council in January.
Interviewed at Thursday's conference, LaCivita and Plouffe recounted their efforts to court so-called “crypto voters” in the 2024 election. Both the Harris and Trump teams viewed the group as a new bloc of potential swing voters who were up for grabs. Coinbase chief policy officer Faryar Shirzad said the company met with both campaign to sell them on the potential.
LaCivita said Trump — who had once been a crypto skeptic — quickly came around, with the help of input from his sons Barron Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
“The newness of it I think was exciting, from the president’s standpoint," said LaCivita. “It didn't take really a lot.”
The campaign, he said, also saw an opportunity to reach a swath of voters who may not have been actively engaged with politics in the past, including Black and younger voters, with whom the Republican Party struggled in the past.
“It gave us an opportunity to establish common ground with an area and a demographic that we need expand in in order to be successful," he said. “This was one of those just great growth opportunities in politics," which he said are “few and far between.”
Plouffe said the Harris campaign had reached the same conclusion and argued the group is only growing.
“The folks who own crypto are pretty politically competitive," he said. “These are not MAGA voters. They are swing voters. Lean a little Democratic, certainly lean a lot younger.”
Both were also bullish on their party's chances in next year's midterm elections. Plouffe stressed the party out of power generally has an edge. He acknowledged that the Democratic Party “has a lot of work to do on its brand" after their disappointing finish last year, but said he hoped "that's going to come from the people who run and from the grassroots together."
LaCivita said the goal for Trump would be to demonstrate to voters that he is delivering on his campaign promises.
Plouffe, who previously served on the global advisory board for Binance, joins a council that also includes former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat-turned-independent. The role of advisers is to be a “sounding board” to discuss policy efforts and business strategy, Shirzad said.
In Congress, legislation is advancing far more quickly than usual for a new industry — a pace that some involved in shaping the bills say comes amid an all-out pressure campaign from the cryptocurrency sector.
On Wednesday, a group of Democrats joined the Republican majority to advance legislation regulating stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency typically pegged to the U.S. dollar. Final passage through the Senate could come next week.
Meanwhile, a more sweeping bill to implement cryptocurrency market structure has begun moving through House committees.
Cappelletti reported from Washington.
FILE - David Plouffe, right, Uber senior vice president of policy and communications, talks about the Uber expansion in Phoenix as Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey listens during a news conference announcing the opening of the new Uber offices June 11, 2015, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.
Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.
Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.
“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.
About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.
Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.
The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.
Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.
In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.
“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.
Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.
The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.
Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.
"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.
There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.
The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."
Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.
Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.
Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
