US Senate hopeful Bernie Moreno touts crypto in campaign stop as industry floods Ohio with ads

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno said Monday he is proud to have the support of the cryptocurrency industry, which has so far invested tens of millions of dollars on his behalf in Ohio’s red-hot Senate race dumped.

Moreno, a Cleveland businessman, said at a campaign event in Columbus that if elected to the Senate he would seek to give “regulatory certainty” to Bitcoin and other digital currencies. He accused his rival, Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Cleveland, of wanting to “banish” Bitcoin and not having even a basic understanding of how crypto works.

“Let me put an end to the myth here: the crypto industry does not want regulation. That is completely incorrect,” Moreno said.

However, Moreno said government regulators are currently “punishing” cryptocurrency companies for regulations they didn’t even know existed. “What I want to do,” Moreno said, “is give them regulatory certainty so that they understand: here are the guardrails, here are the rules of the road.”

Moreno said he supports creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve Some members of both major parties have called for this. He also said he thinks Americans’ 401(k) retirement accounts should consist partly (but not entirely) of investments in cryptocurrencies — a move that many employers have been wary of since the U.S. Department of Labor. has issued an advice in 2022 expressing “serious concerns” about the idea.

The 2024 US Senate race in Ohio has become the most expensive non-presidential political race in US history, with more than $460 million in advertising reserved to date, according to Moreno. according to media reports.

The biggest spender in the race was a pro-crypto super PAC called Defend American Jobs, which in recent weeks launched a nearly $41 million ad campaign on Moreno’s behalf. The industry even organized a free rock concert with The Black Keys last Friday in their hometown of Akron.

Moreno has been an outspoken advocate for crypto long before he entered the Senate race. He pushed successfully for Ohio to become the first state to accept Bitcoin for tax payments in 2018, and it is advocated for years for Northeast Ohio leaders to embrace blockchain – the engine of Bitcoin and other digital currencies. He founded and sold a companyChamp Titles, which integrated blockchain into the car title industry.

“I am proud that the industry supports me,” Moreno said Monday. “And besides, the reason they supported me is because they agree with me, not because I agree with them.”

Moreno said that in case anyone suspects he is supporting crypto for personal gain, he has sold all his Bitcoin – “much to (my) dismay,” he added.

The cryptocurrency industry isn’t just spending a lot of money on the US Senate race in Ohio because of Moreno’s support for it. It’s because Brown, a vocal cryptocurrency skepticchairs the Senate Banking Committee, giving him enormous influence over federal crypto policy.

The advocacy group Stand With Crypto, which rates political candidates based on their support of the cryptocurrency industry, Moreno granted an “A” grade; Brown received an “F.”

The race between Brown and Moreno, considered one of the most competitive in the country this year, comes as crypto companies seek to enact major reforms in the way their industry is regulated — including legislation that would shift oversight of cryptocurrencies from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to the smaller Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Moreno shot Brown’s previous statements that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are used for money laundering, drug trafficking and other illegal activities.

External studies have shown that this is the case: one study from last July found that crypto was involved in nearly $100 billion in illegal money laundering transactions since 2019. But Moreno pointed to the case of HSBC, a British bank that paid a record amount of $1.9 billion in 2012 to settle a money laundering case.

“If you find a random stranger at the Cleveland Browns stadium, he is more knowledgeable and better qualified to regulate cryptocurrency than Sherrod Brown,” Moreno said. “The guy probably doesn’t even understand how email works, let alone how to regulate cryptocurrency.”

Asked to comment on Moreno’s statements, Brown campaign spokeswoman Reeves Oyster said: “Outside groups are spending record amounts of money to defeat Sherrod because they know he will always fight for Ohio, not special interests.”

Jeremy Pelzer covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.