Crypto's Senate Ally Lummis Pushes Federal Agencies on Digital Assets Issues
2025-01-17
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Republican U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis took aim at two federal agencies on behalf of the crypto industry this week, just days before the wide-reaching transition of the federal government when President-elect Donald Trump again takes office.
Lummis warned the U.S. Marshals Office to slow down its crypto asset sales and she cautioned officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that anybody who gets rid of evidence about whether the agency directed banks to drop digital assets clients will be prosecuted, touching on two of the sector's most prominent issues.
Keeping the idea of a U.S. bitcoin reserve top-of-mind as a new Congress starts work and Trump returns to the White House next week, the Wyoming Republican sent a letter this week to the director of the U.S. Marshals Office cautioning that the department should slow down its process for liquidating the crypto assets seized in the Silk Road case. The sales of bitcoin BTCUSD, including current holdings of almost 70,000 bitcoin worth about $6.9 billion, are inappropriate, she argued, considering Trump's interest in a U.S. bitcoin strategic reserve.
"The Department continues to aggressively push forward with liquidation plans despite pending legal challenges, demonstrating an unusual urgency to dispose of these assets," Lummis wrote. "This rushed approach, occurring during the presidential transition period, directly contradicts the incoming administration's stated policy objectives regarding the establishment of a National Bitcoin Stockpile."
On its own, there's little authority the Marshals Office would have to change course from the predetermined liquidation plans already in motion, and it can't make decisions based on a hypothetical government stockpile. The president and Congress would have to move to formally establish a reserve and a process by which the U.S. could redirect seized or purchased tokens into that fund. 
Crypto markets also noted on Thursday the reports that Trump may be interested, too, in reserves of other, U.S.-based tokens. 
Lummis also sent a letter to the FDIC on Thursday, saying that agency insiders have reported that there's an internal effort to conceal evidence of what the crypto industry knows as Operation Chokepoint 2.0 — a campaign to sever digital assets activities from U.S. banking. She said any effort to keep such materials from scrutiny would be "illegal and unacceptable."
Read More: U.S. Regulator Told Banks to Avoid Crypto, Letters Obtained by Coinbase Reveal
A spokeswoman for the FDIC declined to comment on the letter.
The Senate Banking Committee has established a subcommittee focusing on digital assets this year, and Lummis is said to be leading it. She and Senator Tim Scott, the chairman of the full committee, will have a chance to run the panel's crypto agenda in this new session, though they'll be countered by its ranking Democrat, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. 
Scott issued a plan for the committee this week, including the crafting of a U.S. regulatory framework for digital assets. He said he'd "foster an open-minded environment for new, innovative financial technologies and digital asset products, like stablecoins, that promote financial inclusivity."