White House Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard joined the call, along with Kristine Lucius, senior advisor and director of legislative affairs for Vice President Harris, according to sources familiar.
The call, organized by pro-crypto Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.), comes as the White House and the Democratic Party have sought to mend fences with the crypto industry amid increasingly icy relations.
Khanna organized a roundtable with industry executives and Democratic lawmakers last month that was attended by Anita Dunn, then a senior adviser to President Biden, in her personal capacity.
Dunn has since left the White House to work for a super PAC supporting Harris’s campaign, as the vice president has become the likely Democratic nominee following Biden’s decision to step aside.
Paul Grewal, chief legal officer for crypto exchange Coinbase, said the administration officials on Thursday’s call appeared to understand the industry’s frustrations and were eager to find ways to address them.
However, they did not make any firm commitments, he said.
“I applaud [Khanna] for working valiantly to keep people talking to one another and to continue to urge Democratic support for basic crypto legislation and basic crypto standards that doesn’t cede this issue to the Republicans or make it any more partisan than it necessarily needs to be,” Grewal told The Hill.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
