Daniel Wolfram
Trump has personally earned $1.4 billion from his investments in cryptocurrency.
A massive blow was just given to the cryptocurrency industry and Trump’s personal business portfolio.
The Senate struck down the Clarity Act in a tight 50-49 vote yesterday. The bill needed 60 yes-votes to go to the House for ratification.
Four Republicans, Jerry Moran, Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, and Thom Tillis chose to break rank and vote with the Democrats to ultimately get the bill axed.
A blow to the crypto industry
It is a massive loss for the crypto industry, which is trying to make the currency a valid substitute for the US dollar.
The industry also spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying to get this bill passed in Washington. With the midterm election coming in under two months, this bill seems like it will not get passed any time soon.
The crypto market felt the blow instantly. Bitcoin dropped over 5%, while shares for crypto exchange Coinbase dropped almost 10%.
Democrats do not want to pass a crypto bill without safeguards
Ethics concerns were the main reason why this bill did not get passed to the House of Representatives. Donald Trump personally championed this bill, which is why the Democratic Party ultimately decided to vote against it.
According to Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Clarity Act did not do enough to prevent politicians from trading crypto and engaging in insider trading.
“This crypto bill says, ‘Have at it, Mr. President.’ … That’s just fundamentally wrong,” Warren said to CNN.
She further explained the Democrats’ decision to nix the bill on the Senate floor. “Let’s make sure that we do not pass a crypto bill that will let Donald Trump continue to rake in billions of dollars in crypto profits while working families across this country struggle to deal with higher prices and an economy that gets worse by the day,” Warren said.
