Why Senate Democrats Could Turn Their Backs on Crypto

Senate delegations met with crypto industry leaders to discuss market structure legislation today. Although Republicans were on board, prominent Democrats are growing vocally skeptical.

Specifically, Senator Gallego sharply criticized some CEOs’ recent hostile comments. As President Trump uses crypto as a major vehicle for political corruption, continued scandals might make left-leaning Web3 support impossible.

Crypto’s Fraying Senate Coalition

Although the Senate has been working on new crypto market structure regulation for months, we haven’t seen a lot of tangible progress. Ongoing negotiations stalled earlier this month, and several industry CEOs proposed a new measure to restart them. Today, a group of influential Web3 leaders met separately with members of both leading parties.

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So, what’s the issue? On-site reporters claimed that the GOP meeting was “very chill,” with Republican Senators showing real willingness to restart talks. Apparently, they left the discussion with actionable new priorities, like creating a legal definition for DeFi and devising measures to fight crime.

When the crypto leaders came to the Senate’s Democratic representation, however, things got significantly more heated. The meeting, which included top-level officials like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, reportedly turned profane:

Specifically, Senator Gallego was referring to an incident that happened last week. Senate staffers leaked a Democratic proposal on crypto regulation, and many industry leaders angrily lambasted the proposal. Although this document was only the start of negotiations, not a hardline position, it still prompted fury from prominent crypto figures.

Mounting Anti-Crypto Pressure

Unfortunately, that kind of outburst can have real consequences. Although Senate Democrats count influential crypto allies among their ranks, and this support is still active, the coalition might be fraying a little. Trump’s crypto corruption is emboldening new skeptics, while supporters show declining electoral prospects and outright defeat.

In other words, the situation for bipartisan crypto support in the Senate is already quite delicate. Many of the assembled Democrats were actually amenable to continued negotiations, but they can’t look too subservient to Republican policy.

According to polls, the party’s perceived weakness in fighting Trump’s agenda is an electoral albatross around its neck.

The Senate leadership still has a broad bipartisan consensus that crypto should be supported, but that coalition shows signs of fraying.

If scandals like this continue, the Democrats might step away altogether. This could seriously damage the industry’s long-term regulatory prospects.