County Treasurer in Illinois accepts crypto donation in reelection bid

Holly Kim, a treasurer in Lake County, Illinois, has reportedly become the first political candidate in the state to accept crypto campaign donations.

According to the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, Kim recently received a $3 Litecoin (LTC) donation from Mark Tan, founder of T Capital Coin, an investment management outfit based in Lake Forest.

The Lake County Treasurer who is up for reelection in 2022 plans to accept Bitcoin (BTC) and many of the popular cryptocurrencies including Ether (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Dai (DAI).

For Kim, accepting crypto donations opens up a “new frontier” for support from tech-savvy people, adding: “It seems to be how people want to give.”

Kim, a Democrat is also a crypto enthusiast and has reportedly tried to use her position as a former trustee in Mundelein to encourage cryptocurrency adoption in the village.

Given her interest in cryptos, the self-professed “long-time netizen” has plans to hold on to the crypto donations in the expectation of a possible price advance in the market.

Cryptocurrencies enjoyed parabolic gains at the start of the year in a continuation of the upward trend that began in Q4 2020. However, prices have declined significantly since May with many tokens over 50% of their value.

Related: Can Political Fundraising Through Crypto Find Mainstream Acceptance?

Though arguably uncommon, crypto political donations are not unheard of in the United States. Indeed, the Federal Election Commission legalized crypto political campaign contributions as far back as 2014.

Back in June the National Republican Congressional Committee — the Republican Party’s election coordinator — announced plans to begin accepting crypto donations. Former U.S. Presidential aspirant Andrew Yang also accepted crypto donations during his campaign back in 2020.

Several state and federal legislative aspirants have also accepted crypto donations, often in a bid to spur contributions from the younger more tech-savvy demographic.