Ian Calderon Runs for California Governor, Vows to Make State ‘Undisputed Leader’ on Bitcoin

Ian Calderon, a Democrat and former California Meeting majority chief, introduced his candidacy for governor with a promise to place Bitcoin on the coronary heart of state coverage.

“California has all the time been a pacesetter on expertise. It is time for us to get again to our roots and make California the undisputed chief on Bitcoin,” Calderon tweeted Tuesday.

Calderon has been a staunch advocate of the digital asset, confirming in a livestream earlier on the identical day that, as soon as elected, he would “ensure that we maintain Bitcoin on our steadiness sheet” and assist crypto funds for state packages.

In a separate marketing campaign video, Calderon in contrast his positioning with the established order.

“My technology pays payments on our telephones, we ship cash to one another with Venmo and we save in Bitcoin,” Calderon mentioned. “However the folks working our authorities, they’re making an attempt to make use of yesterday’s concepts to unravel at the moment’s issues, and it isn’t working.”

“Bold and daring”

Calderon’s statements should not with out weight or work behind it.

Having left the Meeting in 2020 after three phrases, he remained lively within the coverage house, together with work with the Satoshi Motion Fund in 2022 that explored laws to think about Bitcoin as authorized tender within the state. Calderon can be cited as a contributor in a 2020 roadmap developed by California’s Blockchain Working Group, a discussion board that produced coverage suggestions on digital belongings.

A lot earlier in 2018, Calderon authored AB 2658, which created California’s Blockchain Working Group to guage the expertise’s makes use of, dangers, advantages, and authorized implications for state authorities and companies, outline blockchain in statute, and develop coverage suggestions together with doable amendments to state legislation.

Calderon’s stance “reveals that crypto has entered the mainstream, as a result of candidates at the moment are brazenly working on pro-crypto platforms and competing with each other,” Robert Boris Mofrad, co-founder of blockchain knowledge storage agency Serenity, informed Decrypt.



But whether or not the place is adopted or acquired “by the plenty” would stay unclear, Mofrad famous. “However what we are able to perceive is that crypto is now a critical a part of the political dialog, one which started on the federal degree with the thought of making a reserve.”

“California placing Bitcoin on its steadiness sheet is sort of an formidable and daring place,” Mofrad mentioned. “On the subject of a state resembling California, the world’s fifth-largest economic system, the state of affairs is completely different.”

As a result of governments “normally deal with Bitcoin as an intangible asset,” and should “file each loss in worth however can’t actually file positive factors,” such proposals make it “arduous for a state treasury to handle responsibly,” he added.

California and crypto

Calderon’s marketing campaign comes as California weighs incremental crypto laws by means of two key authorized frameworks.

AB 1180 would permit sure state businesses to pilot stablecoin funds for charges starting in 2026, whereas AB 1052 brings crypto underneath the state’s unclaimed property legislation by requiring inactive custodial accounts to be transferred to the state and held of their authentic type.

Neither measure, nonetheless, would authorize California to buy or maintain Bitcoin straight, marking a transparent distinction from Calderon’s proposal.