She’s back. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the longtime scourge of the crypto industry, is poised to return as a political force in January. That’s when Warren is expected to take over as Chair of the powerful Senate Banking Committee—a role that is critical for steering financial legislation, and comes with broad subpoena and investigative power. This is not exactly good news for crypto firms, of course. The question, though, is whether—just maybe—Warren and the industry can lay aside old antagonisms in order to advance both consumer protection and financial innovation.
As background, the bad blood between Warren and the crypto industry stems from the Biden years. That’s when former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler set out to basically extinguish the U.S. crypto industry with a spate of lawsuits and investigations. Among Washington D.C. insiders, many saw Warren and her staffers as the architects of Gensler’s campaign.
