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The crypto bros are getting in their feels. Venture capital billionaires and crypto-lovers Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz say crypto is an “emotional” issue in the 2024 presidential election. That’s part of the reason they say they joined Elon Musk in the growing group of Silicon Valley heavyweights backing former U.S. President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
In addition to running the VC firm backing OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anduril, Andreessen and Horowitz run a weekly podcast called “The Ben & Marc Show,” where they share their thoughts about the tech industry, politics, and modern society.
On last week’s episode, Ben Horowitz called the Biden administration’s regulatory scrutiny of crypto fraud an “un-American crypto crackdown” and said crypto is “probably the most emotional topic” leading up to Election Day. “It gets very emotional,” he repeated again for emphasis. The two announced that they will donate to a pro-Trump super PAC.
As pointed out by a recent analysis of Andreessen and Horowitz’s decision to back Trump from The Verge’s Elizabeth Lopatto, some of that so-called “un-American” crypto crackdown dates back to the Trump administration. Trump recently reversed his former, anti-crypto stance and is vying to be the “crypto candidate” this election. The Republican nominee is speaking at the annual Bitcoin conference on Saturday. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris turned down a chance to speak at the conference but has been crypto-curious.
Silicon Valley is more politically divided than ever. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and one of the founding investors in OpenAI, Ron Conway, are all behind Harris. Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire, the Winklevoss twins, and 8VC’s Joe Lonsdale are donating to Trump.