Benzinga - A known blockchain advocate, Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of social media platform Reddit Inc. (NYSE:RDDT), highlighted the Democrats who crossed party lines to support a pro-crypto legislation in the Senate Thursday.
What Happened: The U.S. Senate joined the House of Representatives in repealing a controversial SEC directive that would prevent highly regulated financial firms from custodying Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). The legislation was passed by a 2/3rd majority vote.
Interestingly, a dozen Democrats defied the party's hardening anti-crypto stance in supporting the resolution.
Apart from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D), Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D), Gary Peters (D), Bob Casey (D), Jacky Rosen (D), Jon Tester (D), John Hickenlooper (D), Mark Kelly (D), Cory Booker (D), Ben Ray Luján (D), Ron Wyden (D), and Michael Bennet (D) voted in favor.
Ohanian amplified a post from global cryptocurrency advocacy firm Bankless thanking the 12 Democrats, and pledging his support for the cause of cryptocurrencies in the country.
Tweets by alexisohanian
Why It Matters: Ohanian has used public forums to extend his support for cryptocurrencies, even comparing the King Crypto with gold. Ohanian also took an early gamble with Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), grabbing 50,000 of them during the asset's presale in 2014.
As far as Reddit was concerned, the social media giant allocated a part of its excess cash reserves in Bitcoin and Ether. It also purchased Ether and Polygon (CRYPTO: MATIC) to use them to pay for virtual goods.
The company's shares shot up 10% after the market on its new partnership with OpenAI, allowing Reddit users to use ChatGPT.
Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $65,402.52, following a 0.8% pullback in the last 24 hours. Reddit shares were seen trading 11.05% higher in the after-hours session at $62.61 after closing 5.45% lower at $56.38 in regular trading, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Photo Courtesy: Asatur Yesayants on Shutterstock.com
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