House Democrats Struggle to Approach 'Crypto Week' With Unified Front

By Sander Lutz

House Republicans, supported by the White House, are barrelling forward with a slew of crucial votes on digital assets legislation set for next week—and Democrats appear unsure of how to approach “Crypto Week” with a unified front. 

Next week, among other crypto-related measures, the House will vote on the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act, which would create a crypto market structure framework. Some senior House Democrats have urged party leadership to officially come out against both bills, and whip votes against them, sources familiar with the matter told Decrypt. 

But these efforts appear to have been unsuccessful, others said—for numerous reasons, including firm support for both bills among other factions of Democrats with their own motivations.

Among House Democrats, there appears to be a growing consensus that the CLARITY Act will likely squeak by next week with support from all Republicans and some Democrats. But that vote is looking poised to be on a much thinner margin than last year, when another crypto market structure bill passed the House with commanding bipartisan support. 

That vote, which saw 71 Democrats sign on for crypto market regulation, sent an unmistakable signal of support for the industry across the political spectrum. A vote more along party lines next week would be much murkier—and certainly disappoint industry leaders, who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars and countless hours trying to make crypto a nonpartisan issue.

The principal reason some Democrats are so deadset on derailing both crypto bills is because, at Republicans’ insistence, they lack provisions barring President Donald Trump from pursuing lucrative crypto businesses while in office.

These Democrats and their staffers are doing everything in their power to associate the crypto bills exclusively with the president’s perceived conflicts of interests, they say—and want to make that association inescapable for Democrats who opt to vote “yes” next week.

“We want it to be absolutely clear what it is folks are voting on,” one Democratic House staffer told Decrypt. “You're fully informed of what you're doing, you can't say you didn’t know: a vote for either of those bills is a vote for Trump's corruption.” 

Other Democrats, meanwhile, are still likely to vote for the legilsation—particularly, those on the Agriculture Committee, who voted en masse to advance CLARITY to the House floor last month. 

Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), for instance, the top Democrat on that committee, has long supported the crypto industry—which has been kind to her in return. Last year, crypto super PACs spent over $1 million backing Craig’s re-election campaign. In April, Craig announced plans to run for Minnesota’s open Senate seat, a hotly contested race set to take place during next year’s midterms, an election year crypto PACs have already earmarked some $80 million for. 

“Leadership does all sorts of theatrics to push back on Trump and corruption, but when the rubber meets the road, it’s virtue signaling that collapses as soon as money is on the line,” one D.C. insider told Decrypt.

Representatives for Craig did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment on this story; nor did representatives for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) or House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA). 

On Friday, House Financial Services Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) issued a statement comparing pending crypto legislation to President Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which Democrats uniformly opposed (albeit unsuccessfully) earlier this month.

“Just days after passing one of the most egregious billionaire giveaways in American history and ripping basic needs away from American families, Republicans are at it again,” Waters said. “These bills would make Congress complicit in Trump’s unprecedented crypto scam—one that has personally enriched himself, his entire family, and the billionaire insiders in his cabinet, all while defrauding investors.”

Though Waters’ forceful rhetoric has not been echoed by Democratic Party leadership, the party itself appears unable to resist using crypto—and crypto legislation—as an attack vector against the president.

Hours after Waters’ released her statement today on “Anti-Crypto Corruption Week”, the Democratic National Committee blasted out a Trump-focused release titled “CORRUPTION WATCH.”

“GRIFT: Trump is setting crypto policy based on his personal profit,” the memo blared. 

Recommended News