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The crypto lobby lost the last round because people fought back. Public pressure helped expose the CLARITY Act for what it was: an industry-written giveaway designed to weaken oversight, gut consumer protections, and give crypto billionaires a legal fast lane to push risky products into the financial system. Now the crypto industry is trying again. They are using the threat of massive industry political spending to strong arm the Senate into passing the bill with meager changes, despite its many flaws and shortcomings. Senators have raised concerns about how the bill weakens protections for crypto and non-crypto investors, creates loopholes for abuse and scams, fails to stop crypto’s dirty money train or tackle the Trump administration's flagrant crypto corruption -- all while giving dangerous crypto products the appearance of federal legitimacy and opening up the public and the economy to threats from the unstable products. It’s exactly what the crypto industry wants: a bill dressed up as “regulation” that boosts industry profits, no matter the cost to others. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has a choice to make. He can hold Senate Democrats together against this latest crypto billionaire scam, or he can let the crypto industry divide the caucus, peel off votes, and ram through a bill that rewards corruption at the exact moment Trump and his family are using crypto as a personal profit machine. The crypto lobby has already shown its strategy. Spend obscene amounts of money, threaten lawmakers with political retaliation, flood Washington with industry talking points, and call deregulation “clarity.” Senate Democrats cannot reward that campaign by helping pass the Senate’s version of the CLARITY Act.
Crypto billionaires want Congress to believe this is all about innovation. The reality is uglier. The industry wants federal law rewritten so crypto firms can operate with weaker guardrails, fewer consequences, and more room to evade the regulators that still have tools to fight fraud, manipulation, and financial instability. That danger is even worse because of Trump’s crypto conflicts. His family and political allies have turned digital assets into a vehicle for influence, self-enrichment, and backroom deals and profiteering. Passing another crypto industry-written bill in this environment would give political insiders and crypto billionaires exactly what they want: legitimacy without real accountability. Schumer needs to hear that Senate Democrats cannot fold. A united Democratic caucus can stop this bill, slow the industry’s momentum, and force Congress to confront the corruption and consumer risks at the center of this fight. But if Democrats splinter, the crypto lobby will use that opening to push this bill closer to law. We already helped stop one dangerous CLARITY Act push. Now we have to make sure that we win the next round and stop another Wall Street-style financial disaster forced onto working people, retirees, investors, and the broader economy. Let’s stop crypto billionaires from buying their way into federal law. -Mark Mark Hays (he/his)
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