A technological accelerator program at the University of Arkansas has the support of cryptocurrency-focused investment firms Coinbase Ventures and Haun Ventures, who point to the state’s combination of small businesses, big corporations, and important lawmakers.Tomicah Tillemann, chief policy officer at Haun Ventures, referred to Arkansas’ potential to influence crypto policy when she claimed the state is at the meeting point of several forces reshaping the environment for blockchain technology and digital assets.
“The state is home to innovative entrepreneurs, major corporations with global reach and policymakers including Rep. French Hill and Sen. John Boozman, both of whom have taken an interest in digital asset technology. All of this makes Arkansas a great place to work with the startup community,” Tillemann said in a statement.
Coinbase and Haun are adopting a business model that is common in other parts of the United States, where many institutions offer tech-focused programs where businesses can set up shop to hire students as interns.For instance, Jump Trading, a major player in both traditional and cryptocurrency financial trading, has a presence at the University of Illinois Research Park. Jump Crypto President Kanav Kariya joined the company as a result of that program.Lawmakers were alarmed by the collapse of FTX last year, in part due to the discredited leader Sam Bankman-Fried’s ardent lobbying of Capitol Hill to try and mold favorable regulation of cryptocurrency.
In some ways, Coinbase Ventures and Haun Ventures are preaching to the choir in Arkansas: Boozman, the ranking senator on the Senate Agriculture Committee, is a co-sponsor of the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, also known as the “SBF Bill” because it was backed by the disgraced founder of FTX. Hill, the vice chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, also chairs a subcommittee on digital assets.
In addition to Arkansas’ blockchain-focused Bounds Accelerator, Tillemann of Haun Ventures mentioned other states that may be effectively targeted to increase crypto jobs and acceptance as well as further policy talks.
“There’s a great deal of engagement going on right now across the 50 states,” Tillemann said in an interview. “Arkansas is a very compelling example for a variety of reasons. But there are important conversations with founders and policymakers underway in places like Ohio and Montana and many other jurisdictions that are part of this evolving story of building the next generation of the internet.”
The head of corporate development and ventures at Coinbase, Shan Aggarwal, mentioned well-known companies with headquarters in Arkansas like Walmart, Tyson Foods, and J.B. Hunt and said that blockchain technology can assist streamline processes like supply chain management.(Walmart’s significant investigations into ‘business blockchain,’ with companies like IBM, have been well-documented.)
“I wouldn’t describe it as enterprise blockchain,” Aggarwal said in an interview. “But I do think there’s a rising tide of interest in blockchain and crypto technology from large enterprises like Walmart. Some of them are thinking about that more for enterprise use cases, such as helping revolutionize their supply chain, others are thinking about it more from a community or end consumer engagement perspective.”
Startups having a U.S.-based location or representative can now submit an application for the 16-week Bounds accelerator program through November 3.The program starts on January 8, 2024, and is sandwiched between a live orientation and demo day event in Bentonville and weekly remote learning and mentorship meetings.