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Former California Assembly majority leader Ian Calderon has announced his gubernatorial candidacy with Bitcoin at the fore.

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“My generation pays bills on our phones, we send money to each other with Venmo and we save in Bitcoin,” Calderon said in a Sept. 23 video on X announcing his candidacy. “But the people running our government, they’re trying to use yesterday’s ideas to solve today’s problems, and it isn’t working.”

Calderon doubled down on his Bitcoin support in a separate X post moments later.

“California has always been a leader on technology,” he said. “It’s time for us to get back to our roots and make California the undisputed leader on Bitcoin.”

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​Calderon, in an X space on the same day, also committed to establishing a California Bitcoin reserve if elected.

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Calderon was elected to the state assembly in 2012 and served as majority leader from 2016 to 2020. He left the frontlines of the political scene in 2020 to launch lobbying firm Majority Advisors.

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While identifying as pro-Bitcoin has become popular following the 2024 elections that saw the cryptocurrency industry emerge as a major donor, Calderon has long been involved in pro-Bitcoin initiatives.

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​In 2018, he authored the law that created the California Blockchain Working Group to evaluate “the potential uses, risks, and benefits of the use of blockchain technology by state government and California-based businesses.” In 2020, he contributed to the roadmap developed by the working group. In 2022, he collaborated with the Bitcoin advocacy group Satoshi Action Fund to explore the possibility of making Bitcoin a legal tender in California.

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Still, Calderon is a fringe candidate going into the already crowded California gubernatorial elections. A recent Emerson College poll ranks former Congresswoman Katie Porter, political commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco as the frontrunners. Other prominent names in the race include former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former California State Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.