NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In a huge win for the crypto industry, at the Bitcoin Conference on Friday, Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) announced publicly for the first time he is pro-bitcoin.
Speaking to Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) during a fireside chat in front of a packed room, Scott said, “We need to make sure that on our Committee, the Banking Committee, that we create the kind of rules of the road [for crypto] that are very wide. We need a wide pathway for bitcoin to be successful here at home. We need to make sure that things like taxation and regulation do not stifle innovation is what you [Sen. Lummis] taught me.”
His comments, which were well-received by the crowd, broke a long silence on Bitcoin that had many wondering about the fate of pro-crypto legislation in the Senate, as well as the possibility of legislation in the U.S. in general. Scott is the Ranking Member, or highest ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, which has oversight over the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Given the current polling for Senate races, he is likely to be the Chair of the committee next year.
Senator Scott has long talked about his dream of bringing resources into the communities that need it the most to give all Americans a chance. At the conference, he spoke about—and stood up with excitement over—how that led him to crypto.
“I became a huge fan [of Bitcoin] because I grew up in a single parent household mired in poverty and I always wondered how do we get opportunity back to the poorest Americans to these marginalized communities,” he said to Sen. Lummis. “The ability to bring resources and opportunities and access to the marketplace to the people who need it most—that is what Bitcoin is about…to give the average American a chance.”
Current polling suggests Republicans have a 78% chance of winning the Senate. That would catapult Scott to the top spot on the Senate Banking Committee.
“As current Senate Banking Committee Ranking member and potentially next year’s Banking Chair, Senator Tim Scott’s public foray into crypto via appearing both on CNBC and the Bitcoin Nashville stage are important to watch,” said Ron Hammond Director of Government Relations at the Blockchain Association wrote to Unchained via text.
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SEC Chair Gary Gensler has led what many describe as a “regulation by enforcement” regime against crypto in which the agency hasn’t made clear rules for the industry but instead punished crypto companies for infractions of older laws not explicitly designed for the sector. The effect has been to push such entrepreneurs overseas.
Additionally, the current Senate Banking Chair, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), has been openly hostile toward the crypto industry in hearings for the last two years. Brown has not held any markup of legislation for crypto during that time, after the departure of another committee member, pro-crypto Senator Pat Toomey, in spite of the bipartisan passage of the Financial and Innovation for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) by the House in May.
Read more: FIT21 Bill Heads to The Senate: Should We Really Be Excited?
“As things currently stand, crypto legislation’s future rests in the Senate. It has traditionally been the body of Congress where efforts such as market structure and stablecoin regulation have hit a brick wall,” wrote Hammond. “In the two years since Sen Toomey left, the political momentum and fading of the ‘anti-crypto army’ have shifted the political landscape dramatically. Sen. Scott’s public push into crypto shows the status quo of the once indomitable Senate Banking Committee could quickly change.”
