Ripple Chairman donates 1.7 million XRP to Kamala Harris

• Chris Larsen, a co-founder and Chairman of Ripple, gave $1 million worth of XRP coins to Future Forward PAC, a political action group that backs the Vice President’s bid for president.

According to the Federal Election Commission’s records, the 1.7 million XRP coin donation was sent on August 14. Fox Business disclosed this was the first cryptocurrency donation made to Harris’s campaign.

Future Forward PAC automatically converts cryptocurrency donations into the stablecoin USDC through Coinbase Commerce.

Major contributions from well-known individuals including venture capitalist Reid Hoffman, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, the PAC has raised more than $200 million

Larsen’s open support of Harris coincides with a pivotal moment in Ripple’s ongoing legal dispute with the SEC.

The dispute started in 2020, and both parties contested recent decisions from an August final verdict.
Larsen’s support of Harris is all the more noteworthy given Ripple’s ongoing legal battle with the SEC and the growing prominence of cryptocurrency in political discourse.

Cryptocurrency has emerged as a key topic for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential contest.

The vice president has tried to “reset” ties with crypto businesses and their backers, many of whom had defected from the Republican party.

Even though Donald Trump recently changed his strategy and started courting the crypto guys for support, Joe Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and SEC Chair Gary Gensler have all been extremely skeptical of digital assets and essentially view them as a massive speculative fraud.

Harris recently announced that her administration would embrace cutting-edge technology like digital assets and artificial intelligence.