Republican US Senator Cynthia Lummis targeted two federal agencies on behalf of the crypto industry this week, days ahead of a sweeping transition of the federal government as President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
In the snow warned the US Marshals Office to slow down the sale of its crypto assets and he warned officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that anyone who removes evidence about whether the agency ordered banks to drop clients’ digital assets will be prosecuted, touching on two of the sector’s most pressing issues.
Keeping the idea of a US bitcoin reserve top-of-mind as a new Congress begins work and Trump returns to the White House next week, the Wyoming Republican sent a letter this week to the director of the US Marshals Office warning that the department should slow down its process for liquidating crypto assets seized in the Silk Road case. Bitcoin (BTC) sales, including current holdings of nearly 70,000 bitcoins worth about $6.9 billion, are inappropriate, he argued, considering Trump’s interest in a US bitcoin strategic reserve.
“The Department continues to aggressively advance liquidation plans despite pending legal challenges, demonstrating the extraordinary need to dispose of these assets,” Lummis wrote. “This rash approach, taking place during a presidential transition, directly contradicts the stated policy goals of the incoming administration regarding the establishment of a National Bitcoin Stockpile.”
On its own, the Marshals Office has little authority to have to change course from predetermined extermination plans already in motion, and it can’t make decisions based on a hypothetical government stockpile. The president and Congress need to move to formally establish a reserve and a process through which the US can redirect the spoils or buy tokens in that fund.
Crypto markets also took note on Thursday of reports that Trump may be interested, too, in the reserves of other US-based tokens.
Lummis also sent a letter to the FDIC on Thursday, saying that agency insiders reported that there was an internal effort to hide evidence of what the crypto industry knows as Operation Chokepoint 2.0 — a campaign to cut off digital asset activities from US banking. He said any effort to keep such materials from scrutiny would be “illegal and unacceptable.”
Read more: US Regulator Tells Banks to Avoid Crypto, Letters Obtained by Coinbase Reveal
An FDIC spokesman declined to comment on the letter.
The Senate Banking Committee established a subcommittee focusing on digital assets this year, and Lummis is said to be leading it. He and Senator Tim Scott, the chairman of the full committee, will have the opportunity to run the panel’s crypto agenda in this new session, although they will be up against its ranking Democrat, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Scott issued a plan for the committee this week, including the creation of a US regulatory framework for digital assets. He said he will “foster an open-minded environment for new, innovative financial technologies and digital asset products, such as stablecoins, that promote financial inclusivity.”
