FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Dec. 10, 2025
CONTACT: Jarice Thompson, jarice@ourfinancialsecurity.org
Nearly 200 Groups Oppose Current Slate of Crypto Legislation
Crypto legislation should be crafted to protect the people’s public interest, not the industry’s wishlist
Washington D.C. – Today, a coalition of 192 national and state civil rights, labor, community, consumer, environmental, faith-based, and other organizations sent a letter urging the Senate to oppose the passage of any crypto market structure legislation that fails to address the systemic failures of the crypto industry that can harm investors, financial stability, and the economic security of workers and families.
The letter notes that the “legislation should have binding and enforceable provisions, and should not undermine existing safeguards for traditional investors, markets, and communities. Any bill that fails to uphold these foundational priorities would give a congressional stamp of approval to under-regulated cryptocurrencies, amplifying financial risk and loss for millions of workers and families as well as imperiling the stability of the financial system and the entire economy.”
The letter to the Senate can be found here.
The crypto industry’s aggressive lobbying and surging campaign contributions has pushed the Senate to consider light-touch regulatory legislation that fails to prevent the rampant crypto corruption of the First Family and other Trump cronies.
“The Senate has failed to tackle the endemic fraud, market manipulation, and criminal money laundering in the crypto industry,” said Mark Hays, associate director of crypto and fintech policy at the Americans for Financial Reform. “The Senate should not swallow the industry’s snake oil. Without tackling the deceptive practices and exploitation in this industry, this legislation just gives a rubber stamp for bad actors to rip-off hard-working families, small investors, and retirees.”
The letter delineates five foundational priorities that any crypto market structure legislation must address but that the current legislative drafts fail to achieve:
- Legislation must not enable conflicts of interest and crypto corruption
- Legislation must protect consumers and address crypto crime and fraud
- Legislation must address the economic and environmental impacts of cryptomining
- Legislation must address crypto’s threat to financial stability
- Legislation must have prescriptive, binding, and enforceable measures
The current Senate legislative drafts either fail to address these priorities or fail to deliver meaningful provisions with robust language that will actually deliver needed guardrails for the crypto industry. Without key foundational priorities, these pieces of legislation only serve the needs of the industry while leaving people and our economy vulnerable to the same levels of instability that sowed the seeds of the 2008 financial crisis.
The letter concludes: “The crypto industry should play by the same rules as other financial market actors. Congress should seek to make those rules fair and consistent across finance and should be wary of creating carve outs for wealthy special interests — especially when doing so could not only result in less protection for crypto consumers, but could erode protections for everyone else, destabilize the financial system, threaten workers’ retirement savings, enable corruption and accelerate the climate crisis. We have learned the hard way that pursuing half-measures with financial regulation risks amplifying the very harm Congress and the public seek to address. Instead, Congress should seek to get it right, rather than simply get something done.”
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