"Congress has a responsibility to provide common sense and sound regulation on crypto, and we need your support to make sure that any proposal is bipartisan," he told the online group, which was assembled to prove that Democrats are “engaged” on crypto issues this election year.

Of course, the background here is that Democrats… haven’t exactly been engaged on crypto for a long time.

The Biden Administration has said little publicly on the issue but has quietly backed a host of crypto-unfriendly actions through the Department of Treasury and, by proxy, the Securities and Exchange Commission. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a close ally of SEC Chair Gary Gensler, is widely seen to have driven the administration crypto policy, which has involved a host of aggressive enforcement actions against the industry, while offering few clear guidelines as to what is and isn’t permissible when dealing in digital assets in the United States.

So, to see Schumer make time on his schedule, appear at the Crypto4Harris event and make a legislative commitment is, to use a Biden phrase, a BFD.

“We succeeded in spotlighting our big tent and showing that crypto is not just the loudest MAGA crypto bros you see online,” G Clay Miller, one of the organizers, told CoinDesk in an interview. (Miller, a former Senate staffer, has a job in the crypto industry working for a leading digital assets advisory firm, but says his political work is separate.)

Miller said 15,000 people registered ahead of the town hall and that 1,000 were in attendance at any one time.

The organizers’ main goal was to show the outside world that Democrats were interested in getting things done on crypto, despite the Biden administration’s record. It was also to send a “loud message” to the Harris campaign that crypto was paying attention to what the vice president was, and wasn’t saying, on the issue. Miller said campaign staffers listened in and were impressed with what they heard.

The big question is what it will take for Democrats to prove to crypto folk that they are serious about a “policy reset.” It’s unclear at this stage exactly what might be included in Schumer’s bill. But bipartisanship seems at least possible.

Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who heads the powerful House Financial Services Committee and has been a leading voice for crypto legislation in this Congress, tweeted support for Schumer this morning.

I welcome @SenSchumer’s interest in digital asset legislation to protect consumers and foster innovation.

The House has done its work by passing the bipartisan #FIT21 with 2/3rds voting in support back in May.

Senate action on digital asset market structure is long overdue.

— Patrick McHenry (@PatrickMcHenry) August 15, 2024

this seems not insignificant to me. has there ever been a higher profile Democratic politician expressing such profoundly reasonable sentiments? I can’t think of a time. https://t.co/ApjhqTSqgz

— Matthew Graham (@mattyryze) August 15, 2024

I JUST HEARD SOMETHING CREDIBLE abt @KamalaHarris: Warrenite left-wingers are claiming to be her economics/#crypto advisers but may not actually be. It's silly season, folks. So much jockeying & gaslighting. A Dem official asked me to hold judgment. I'll be fair & wait for facts pic.twitter.com/NBrs5u85Lx

— Caitlin Long 🔑⚡️🟠 (@CaitlinLong_) August 14, 2024

I don’t belong to a political party, but I did listen in to the @Crypto4Harris event. A few thoughts on that call:

- I thought a town hall was for hearing people’s opinion, you know, people in the town. Instead we got a few lectures of the participants’ views of crypto and where… https://t.co/jYXKqJUTOv

— Jake Brukhman @ NYC (@jbrukh) August 15, 2024

Every day Kamala Harris ignores the public inquiry and her donors in regard to her crypto policy “reset”, she’s delivering the loudest message possible short of putting it in a press release: she plans to f*ck us.

— David Bailey🇵🇷 $0.65mm/btc is the floor (@DavidFBailey) August 15, 2024

Who knows?

What we do know is that D.C., Democrats are at least paying attention this year. They realize they have to do something on crypto policy. And it seems likely that the crypto vote, which until recently was all for Trump, might now be split.