Ohio is set to elect a pro-crypto Senator when the state heads to the polls later this year — regardless of who wins the race.
Democratic candidate Tim Ryan will face Republican J.D. Vance in November’s Midterm elections after the two won their respective primary elections this week.
Venture Capitalist Vance, who was backed by former President Donald Trump in the Republican Primary election, owns Bitcoin worth between $100,000 and $250,000, according to financial disclosures he filed to the U.S. Senate earlier this year.
That holding translates to somewhere between 2.5 and 6.4 Bitcoins, according to the Xe currency exchange.
Vance has spoken out publicly against the regulation of cryptocurrencies.
Last year, he slammed an amendment to the Infrastructure Bill that would tighten crypto regulation by requiring “digital asset exchanges behaving as brokers … to report transactions just like other kinds of brokers already do.”
Dubbing the amendment “disastrous,” Vance argued it would lead to “mass surveillance of those in the cryptocurrency community” and damage progress in America’s tech sector.
The $1 trillion Infrastructure Bill was passed into law late last year, complete with provisions on tightening the regulation of cryptocurrencies.
Meanwhile, Democrat Ryan, a Congressman representing Ohio’s 13th District and a former Presidential candidate, co-sponsored the bipartisan Keep Innovation in America Act in November.
The legislation seeks to regulate digital assets without “stifling entrepreneurship, innovation, or impeding privacy rights,” and urges Congress to “bring legal and regulatory certainty to ensure these technologies and entrepreneurs continue to flourish here in the U.S.”
It seeks to achieve this, in part, by expanding Congress’ definition of a digital asset broker.
Back in November, Ryan said Congress needed to recognize that blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized finance were “some of the most important innovations to come along in a generation.”
“We have to figure out how to balance consumer protections and reasonable oversight while simultaneously providing these technologies and companies with the necessary space they need to grow, innovate and democratize the financial sector,” he said in a statement at the time.
The Senate is currently evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, but blues hold a majority due to the deciding vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.
With Ohio’s GOP Senator Rob Portman not seeking reelection, the state is considered one of the most likely Senate seats to flip parties, according to CNN, NPR and The Hill.