Democratic | Crypto

A House Committee on Financial Services hearing on Wednesday dredged up concerns about the pro-crypto regulatory shift under the Trump administration. US lawmakers questioned Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins at a hearing on Wednesday about the agency's enforcement actions against the crypto industry and why several cases were dismissed since the leadership change. Enforcement actions since US President Donald Trump assumed office, and appointed Atkins as SEC chair, are down by 60%, Representative Stephen Lynch said. The Massachusetts Democrat cited the dismissal of several SEC lawsuits against the crypto industry, including the SEC's motion to dismiss the Binance case in May 2025, as examples of the dropped enforcement cases. Read more

The predictions market platform announced two new hires related to state policy efforts and relations with the federal government. Predictions market platform Kalshi said it will open an office in Washington, D.C., and hire “talent from both sides of the aisle” as part of the company’s efforts to expand its US footprint. In a Monday notice, Kalshi said it had hired former Biden administration official John Bivona as the prediction market’s head of federal government relations, and Blake Bee, a former Amazon senior manager of state and local public policy. The move came as many bets on prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket are under scrutiny by US federal lawmakers and state officials. Read more

Mayor Eric Adams criticized Andrew Cuomo’s approach to crypto as New York governor, as voters in the Democratic primary prepare to choose their candidate for the November election. New York City Mayor Eric Adams criticized Democratic mayoral candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo as residents prepared to vote in the party’s primary election. Speaking at the Permissionless conference in Brooklyn on Tuesday, Adams said that under Cuomo’s governorship, New York State “dismantled and destroyed the industry,” describing the former governor’s actions as “wrong” and “misguided” on digital assets. The mayor, running for reelection as an independent candidate, said he planned to set up a city council to advocate for crypto policies in state government, and “build out the pipeline” to pay for city services using crypto and by introducing digital asset education in schools. Read more

The proposed bill from Senator Adam Schiff followed similar legislation in the House of Representatives from Maxine Waters in response to the president's memecoin dinner. California Senator Adam Schiff and nine other Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation to prevent what they called “financial exploitation of digital assets” by the US president and other public officials. In a Monday announcement, Schiff and several Democratic senators said they had introduced the Curbing Officials’ Income and Nondisclosure, or COIN, Act, in response to US President Donald Trump’s connections to the cryptocurrency industry. The proposed legislation followed Trump’s disclosure of $57.4 million in income tied to World Liberty Financial (WLF), the crypto platform backed by members of his family. “President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency dealings have raised significant ethical, legal and constitutional concerns over his use of the office of the presidency to enrich himself and his family,” said Schiff. “That’s why I am ...