The Democrats are fighting their cryptocurrency strategy, an industry that was once underground that has become a powerful player in Capitol Hill, and closely associated with President Donald Trump.
The cryptocurrency groups obtained a great victory in Washington on Tuesday, and the Senate approved a historical bill to regulate some digital assets. It was a bipartisan vote, with 18 Democrats who joined almost all Republicans to support the bill after an intense lobbying and defense effort.
But the battle for legislation has exhibited deep democratic divisions on how to handle the widest issue of cryptography in a Washington controlled by the Republican Party. While some Democrats have pressed for the party to lead the position of policy development for the emerging industry, others have been careful to embrace a tool that they say has created conflicts of interest for Trump. The recently published financial revelations show that Trump made one of his largest fortunes last year, $ 57.3 million, in the cryptocurrency company of his family World Liberty Financial.
Progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the main Democrat in the Senate Banking Committee, said that the Genius Law: the bill that approved the Senate that would establish the first regulatory framework for the emitters of Stablcoins, digital tokens linked to Fiat currencies such as the US dollar, would create a “superhornic road” for corruption in the white Trump.
Warren also lamented with NBC’s news that the cryptographic industry is “virtating money to try to influence the votes here in Congress.”
But other Democrats see that this is a rare opportunity for Congress to move forward to a problem, arguing that they cannot afford until they recover power in Washington, especially with the speed with which technology moves.
“I think each politician will say this. It is the same as any industry that they do not like or understand,” said Senator Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, who supports the genius law, NBC News in an interview.
Democrats collide with closed -door cryptography
The genius law is now directed to the Chamber, where the democratic division on the cryptocurrency, which can often fall along generational lines, reached a critical point during a private meeting last week attended the room and a fourth fountain that was informed at the meeting.
The representative Angie Craig, D-minn., Which is postulated for the Senate, expressed her support for the industry and a recent bipartisan bill called Linging of Clarity, which would provide a regulatory framework for digital assets, according to three of the sources.
Craig, 53, serves in the Agriculture Committee of the House of Representatives such as the main Democrat, and the representative Maxine Waters, 86, D-Calif., He is the classification member in the Financial Services Committee. Waters opposes legislation and, on the other hand, wants to prohibit Trump from benefiting from the digital assets that Congress could legitimize.
Waters expressed those concerns at Wednesday’s meeting, Three of the sources said. Other members agreed, including representative Jim Himes, D-Conn., Classification Member of the Chamber Intelligence Committee.
Both HIMES and Waters emphasized the need for greater commercial protections of privileged information in the bill, the three sources said. Legislators said the Democrats should not allow Trump to get rich in access without restrictions to the industry that wants Congress to regulate.
Craig argued that Trump was already bound by existing laws, said one of the sources. Waters started talking about Craig, who told the room that he was in the midst of speaking, which led to a heated discussion, the source said.
As this episode was developed, representative Bobby Scott, D-VA.
Jeffries moved to the discussion for again, the three sources said. After the meeting, both Waters and a Craig spokesman declined to comment, saying that the meeting was private. The Jeffries office also refused to comment on a private meeting. A Scott spokesman did not respond to a request for comments.
Craig, whose re -election campaign received a great impulse from the groups associated with the industry last year, has supported Trump control. During the marking of the Agriculture Committee on the Clarity Law, the representative Eugene Vindman, D-VA., Offered an amendment aimed at entities that have assets based on memes associated with the president, vice president or other public officials. The 24 Democrats in the panel, including Craig, supported the amendment; The Republicans voted for success.
Cryptographic groups spent a lot of money on the last elections
It is coming about the democratic debate is the fact that the groups associated with the cryptographic industry were very involved in the last elections.
Fairshake, a Super Pac focused on cryptography that was formed in 2023, spent $ 195 million in the 2024 elections. And the group already has $ 116 million in cash in cash for the electoral cycle of mid -period 2026, according to the group spokesman, Josh Vlasto.
“We are keeping the foot in the gas and all the options are on the table,” Vlasto told NBC News.
The cryptographic groups supported the candidates of both parties in 2024, but also spent $ 40 million to oppose the then Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who was finally defeated by Republican Bernie Moreno. That breed is still persisting in the air among the Democrats who fear that this type of cash is used against them.
The cryptocurrency industry has also increased its lobby and base defense efforts in recent years.
Stand with Crypto, a defense group, launched a campaign around the approval of the genius law encouraging people to call or send an email to their senators in support of the bill. The effort turned out that 75,000 emails were sent to the members, according to the organization.
The group also organized the so -called flight meetings before the key votes on the bill to link members with constituents who use cryptography.
Stand with Crypto has not made any electoral support, but the room is being left to do it in the future. Meanwhile, the group created a “command box” that tracks how the members are in key votes and has been arguing to legislators that a growing number of voters cares about cryptography.
“For these people who are afraid of [crypto] People who donate money, that’s not really what we do. But what should worry is that our voters vote differently, because these votes are at stake, “said Mason Lynaugh, community director of Stand With Crypto, A NBC News.” Many of these people were not civically committed before, and I don’t know if the genius returns in the bottle. “
Although the Democrats are far from joining the issue, the industry has made some key allies in the party.
“We are here to legislate, and again, to try to fulfill the economy that is outside the United States is uncontrollable at this time,” said Gallego. “I think it is the responsibility of us as Congress to leave the rules of the road.”
Senator Raphael Warnock, D-G., Who also supports the genius law, said he voted for the bill because many of his voters already use cryptography.
“We are already using these products. And, therefore, from the point of view of public policy, one of the questions for me is, what will leave consumers in a better place? So, we clearly need some type of regulatory structure,” Warnock told NBC News.
When asked if the industry is pumping too much money in the elections, Warnock replied: “I think there is too much money in our system, whether it is talking about oil and gas or the weapons industry, it is a serious problem of democracy.”
