Republican U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis took aim at two federal agencies on behalf of the crypto industry this week, just days before the federal government’s high-profile transition when President-elect Donald Trump returns to office.
Lummis warned the US Marshals Office to slow down its crypto asset sales and she warned officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. That anyone who gets rid of evidence indicating whether the agency ordered banks to abandon their digital asset customers will be prosecuted, addressing two of the most high-profile issues in the sector.
With the idea of a U.S. bitcoin reserve in mind as a new Congress begins work and Trump returns to the White House next week, the Wyoming Republican this week sent a letter to the director of the U.S. Marshals Office warning that the department should slow down its process of liquidating crypto assets seized in the Silk Road case. Sales of Bitcoin (BTC), including current holdings of nearly 70,000 Bitcoins worth approximately $6.9 billion, are inappropriate, she argued, given the interest in Trump for an American strategic reserve of Bitcoin.
“The Department continues to aggressively advance liquidation plans despite ongoing legal challenges, demonstrating an unusual urgency to dispose of these assets,” Lummis wrote. “This rushed approach, coming during the presidential transition period, directly contradicts the new administration’s stated policy goals regarding the creation of a national Bitcoin stockpile.”
On its own, the Marshals Office would have little authority to change course from predetermined liquidation plans already underway, and it cannot make decisions based on a hypothetical government stockpile. The President and Congress should formally establish a reserve and a process by which the United States could redirect seized or purchased tokens into this fund.
Crypto markets also noted reports on Thursday that Trump may also be interested in the reserves of other US-based tokens.
Lummis also sent a letter to the FDIC on Thursday, saying agency officials reported there was an internal effort to cover up evidence of what the crypto industry knows as Operation Chokepoint 2.0 – a campaign to separate digital asset businesses from US banks. She said any effort to shield these documents from review would be “unlawful and unacceptable.”
Read more: US regulator told banks to avoid crypto, letters obtained by Coinbase reveal
An FDIC spokeswoman declined to comment on the letter.
The Senate Banking Committee created a subcommittee focused on digital assets this year, and Lummis would lead it. She and Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the committee of the whole, will have the opportunity to lead the panel’s crypto agenda in this new session, although they will be opposed by its top Democrat, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Scott released a plan for the committee this week, including developing a U.S. regulatory framework for digital assets. He said it would “foster an open-minded environment for innovative new financial technologies and digital asset products, like stablecoins, that promote financial inclusion.”
