It began slowly with a few stubborn Democrats in Congress who refused to hew to the partisan line set down by party leaders. That drip-drip of resistance became a trickle and then a river in the last month as more of their colleagues—including powerful Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) joined them in voting in favor of a piece of crypto legislation. The dam finally broke on Wednesday when 71 Democrats joined 208 Republicans in the House of Representatives to pass another pro-crypto law—this one clarifying the regulatory authority of the SEC and CFTC—and wash away the ideological hardline imposed by the progressive wing of the party.
Crypto Twitter, never subtle at the best of times, treated this week's bipartisan show of support for crypto as a glorious national achievement on par with civil rights legislation or the founding of the republic. The gleeful rhetoric was excessive but understandable. At the start of this year, hope for crypto reform in Washington, D.C., was all but dead, and it looked like the industry's nemesis, SEC Chair Gary Gensler, would have the last laugh. But thanks to a shrewd national PR campaign led in part by former Schumer aide Josh Vlasto, many Democrats came to realize an obvious truth—that a sizable portion of people under 50 care about crypto—and the ground began to shift.
