'Bought themselves a Congress': GOP pulls crypto bill after industry titan turns on it

Republicans in the Senate were working toward a sweetheart deal bill for the cryptocurrency industry — but now that bill is in limbo after one of the industry's most prominent titans slammed it, Politico reported on Thursday.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who heads up the Senate Banking Committee, "is facing opposition from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, founder of the largest U.S.-based crypto exchange. Coinbase has one of the most aggressive lobbying and legal operations in the realm of crypto policy, and it has pumped tens of millions of dollars into a pro-crypto super PAC network," said the report. "The bill at issue is on its face the kind of thing crypto companies have been working toward for years — a sweeping rewrite of Wall Street regulations to accommodate the trading of crypto tokens. It’s also a top financial policy priority for the Trump administration."

However, Armstrong opposes recent changes to the bill that de-emphasize the role of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which industry leaders prefer dealing with over the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as potential amendments that could limit stablecoin "rewards" that compete with high-interest savings accounts offered by traditional banks.

According to the report, the crypto industry itself is divided over the issue, with many firms still wanting the bill to advance — but Armstrong posted to X, “We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill,” which was enough for Scott to postpone the markup, leaving the bill in a holding pattern.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who opposes the bill, nonetheless told Politico's Jasper Goodman she is alarmed by the influence crypto executives have in delaying it over their slightest grievance. “Evidently, the industry writes the bill and if anybody in Congress has the nerve to slightly amend it, the industry says that the whole thing is off and they have canceled the law,” she said. “These are folks who think that when they’ve bought themselves a Congress, then they expect it to behave the way they say.”

All of this comes as the Trump administration has been under fire for conflicts of interest in crypto policy, having worked to pass pro-industry crypto legislation at the same time his family is setting up massively lucrative crypto ventures that even exceed the value of their multi-generational real estate business.