Crypto heavyweights slam Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s crusade for more oversight of sector

Elizabeth Warren’s latest move for more oversight of crypto has pushed industry heavyweights including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong to go on the counteroffensive. The senior senator from Massachusetts earlier this week sent a series of letters, demanding answers about what she alleges is a “revolving door” of hires close to the government used to create a “veneer of legitimacy.”

“Being anti-crypto is a really bad political strategy going into 2024,” Coinbase’s Armstrong wrote on X, accusing Warren of “lobbying for big banks.”

“It is sad that @ewarren who started her career with good intentions has morphed into a disingenuous know-it-all who uses any chance she gets to make a headline,” Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz posted.

Voting strategies

Crypto lawyer Scott Johnsson believes trying to unseat Warren from Congress is “not worth the energy.” “Instead, focus on vulnerable seats that have supported her crusade this past year,” Johnsson wrote on X, offering up a list of House and Senate Democrats facing close races in their states.

Castle Island Ventures co-founder Nic Carter echoed the idea of going after Warren’s allies rather than her directly.

“If the crypto industry gets their act together in 2024 and helps swing a few close races, like eg. Brown in Ohio, senators will be a lot less brazen about wantonly attacking us going forward,” Carter wrote, referring to the upcoming re-election challenge faced by Senator Sherrod Brown, who shares Warren’s anti-crypto stance.

Indirect influence

Messari CEO Ryan Selkis believes Warren’s influence lies not just in the actual legislation she is pushing forward, but in her connections with other powerful actors in the government.

“Warren’s opposition to crypto is so effective because it’s mostly indirect. The White House and major financial regulators won’t even field phone calls from the industry because of her pressure, and they rebuffed all the meeting requests with the 40+ founders who visited the Capitol during Coinbase’s ‘Stand with Crypto’ this September,” Selkis wrote in his Crypto Theses for 2024.

Among Warren’s close allies in the government, Selkis lists Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair Martin Gruenberg, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Rohit Chopra, deputy Treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo, Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters and National Economic Council deputy director Jon Doneneberg.

Selkis accused Warren of “building an anti-crypto empire” and said the industry should build a “rebel alliance” in response. He pointed at the 2024 presidential election as a possible turning point for curbing Warren’s influence.

“We will see who wins next November, but I don’t think she’s going to like the outcome,” Selkis wrote.

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