Lummis blasts Democrats after Senate blocks cryptocurrency regulation she long touted

WASHINGTON—Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked legislation to create a new regulatory framework for cryptocurrency, stalling an industry-backed effort to place new guardrails around digital assets after demanding more limits on President Donald Trump’s investments.

The 49-50 vote on whether to move forward with the legislation was a pivotal election-year test for the $2.3 trillion cryptocurrency market as the industry has pushed aggressively for a uniform set of rules. The Senate debate came as cryptocurrency companies have become a major political force, and as Trump has amassed significant wealth in crypto while in office.

While some Democrats are friendly toward the industry and support the idea of regulation, they have been adamant that the bill include strong ethics safeguards to prevent the president and his family from enriching themselves while he’s in office. 

Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, who served as a lead sponsor of the bill, said she worked with Senate Democrats in good faith to address their concerns. Tuesday’s outcome, she wrote, shows “they were never truly serious about protecting consumers and preserving American leadership.

“For over a year, they presented demands and the second we met them, they made new demands and moved the goal posts,” she wrote in a social media post. “Today they voted against real limitations on politicians’ personal crypto investments. They voted against protecting American consumers from the scammers and fraudsters this bill would have shut down. They voted against American leadership, and handed China and every one of our foreign competitors exactly what they wanted. Democrats chose politics over the American people—again. That’s not leadership on their part, that’s surrender to their radical, socialist base.