Democrats are struggling with their strategy on cryptocurrency, an former underground industry which has become a powerful actor of Capitol Hill – and closely associated with President Donald Trump.
Cryptocurrency groups marked a major victory in Washington on Tuesday, the Senate adopting a historic bill to regulate certain digital assets. It was a bipartite vote, 18 democrats joining almost all Republicans to support the bill following an intense lobbying and advocacy effort.
But the battle on legislation revealed deep democratic divisions on how to manage the broader question of crypto in a Washington controlled by the GOP. While some Democrats prompted the party to direct the accusation on the development of the emerging industry policy, others were wary of adopting a tool which, according to them, has created conflicts of interest for Trump. The recently published financial revelations show that Trump made one of his biggest fortunes last year, $ 57.3 million, on the cryptocurrency of his family, World Liberty Financial.
Progressive senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, the best democrat of the senatorial banking committee, said that the engineering law – the bill that the Senate adopted which would establish the first regulatory framework for stable issuers, digital tokens adapted to Fiat Currencs like the American dollar – In the Fiat White House.
Warren has also deplored NBC News that the cryptographic industry “pays money to try to influence the votes here in the congress”.
But other Democrats see that it is a rare chance for the Congress to anticipate a problem, arguing that they cannot afford to wait for them to look at power in Washington to act – in particular with the speed with which technology moves.
“I think each politician will say. It is the same thing about any industry he does not like or does not understand,” NBC News told an interview, Senator Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.
Democrats compete on the Crypto behind closed doors
The act of genius is now heading to the House, where the democratic fracture on cryptocurrency – which can often fall according to generations – came to the head during a private meeting last week to the presence of the chief of the Hakeem Jeffries House, DN.Y., other Democratic leaders and members of the committee, according to three sources that were in the room and a fourth source that was informed of the meeting.
Representative Angie Craig, d-minn., Who presents herself for the Senate, expressed his support for the industry and a recent Bipartisan bill called the Clarity Act, which would provide a regulatory framework for digital assets, according to three sources.
Craig, 53, is part of the Chamber’s Agriculture Committee as the best Democrat, and the 86-year-old representative, Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Is the member of the financial services committee. Waters opposes legislation and rather wants to prevent Trump from benefiting from the digital assets that Congress could legitimize.
Waters expressed these concerns at the Wednesday meeting, Three of the sources have indicated. Other members have agreed, including representative Jim Himes, D-Conn., The classification member of House Intelligence Committee.
Himes and Waters underlined the need for negotiating greater initiates in the bill, the three sources said. The legislators have said that Democrats should not allow Trump to be rich in unhindered access to the industry, which he wishes to regulate.
Craig argued that Trump was already bound by existing laws, according to one of the sources. Waters started talking about Craig, who told the room that she was talking about, leading to a lively discussion, said the source.
While this episode took place, representative Bobby Scott, D-VA., Suggested that perhaps the Democrats should act to completely ban the industry, two sources have added-an example of the way some Democrats are on the issue.
Jeffries moved to the discussion for another time, the three sources said. After the meeting, Waters and a spokesperson for Craig refused to comment, saying that the meeting was private. Jeffries’ office also refused to comment on a private meeting. An Scott spokesperson did not respond to a request for comments.
Craig, whose re -election campaign received a big boost from groups associated with industry last year, argued a check on Trump. During the increase in the Agriculture Committee on the Clarity Act, representative Eugene Vindman, D-VA., Offered an amendment targeting entities that hold assets based on memes associated with the president, vice-president or other officials. The 24 Panel Democrats, including Craig, supported the amendment; The Republicans voted successfully.
Crypto groups have spent big dollars for the last elections
Democratic debate is the fact that groups associated with cryptographic industry were strongly involved in the last elections.
FAIRSHAKE, a super heat pump focused on crypto-axée, which formed in 2023, spent $ 195 million in the 2024 elections. And the group already has $ 116 million in cash for the mid-term electoral cycle of 2026, according to group spokesperson Josh Vlasto.
“We keep our foot on the gas and all the options are on the table,” Vlasto told NBC News.
Crypto groups supported the candidates of both parties in 2024, but they also spent 40 million dollars to oppose at the time. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who was finally defeated by the Republican Bernie Moreno. This breed still persists in the air among the Democrats who fear this kind of money used against them.
The cryptocurrency industry has also composed its lobbying and defense efforts in recent years.
Stand with Crypto, a advocacy group, launched a campaign around the adoption of the engineering law, encouraging people to call or send an email to their senators to support the bill. The effort led to the sending of 75,000 emails to the members, according to the organization.
The group has also organized so-called flight meetings before key votes on the bill in order to connect members with voters who use the crypto.
Stand with Crypto has made no electoral mention, but he lets himself be the play to do so in the future. In the meantime, the group has created a “dashboard” which follows the way in which the members focus on key votes and have supported the legislators that an increasing number of voters care about the crypto.
“For these people who are afraid of people (crypto) who give money, this is not really what we do. But what should be concerned is that our voters vote differently, because these votes are to be won,” said Mason Lynauugh, community director of Stand with Crypto, NBC News. “Many of these people were not civtically committed before, and I don’t know if the genius returns to the bottle.”
Even if the Democrats are far from being united on the subject, the industry has created key allies in the party.
“We are here to legislate, and once again, to try to comply with an economy largely outside the United States is uncontrollable at this stage,” said Gallego. “I think it is the responsibility of us as a congress of repressing the rules of the road.”
Senator Raphael Warnock, D-GA., Who also supports the law on genius, said that he had voted for the bill because many of his voters already use the crypto.
“We already use these products. And therefore from the point of view of public policy, one of the questions for me, that is, what will leave consumers in a better place? So, we clearly need a kind of regulatory structure,” Warnock told NBC News.
When asked if the industry pumps too much money in the elections, Warnock replied: “I think there is too much money in our system, whether you are talking about oil and gas or the firearms, it is a serious democracy problem.”
