Democrats Stage Crypto Walkout to Hold Dueling Hearing

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Investing, Business

4.8 • 786 Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Yesterday's Congressional crypto hearings descended into partisan theatrics as Democrats led by Maxine Waters staged a dramatic walkout, splitting discussions into dueling roundtables. At issue: allegations of presidential crypto-related corruption versus critical bipartisan efforts to establish regulatory clarity for crypto markets. NLW breaks down the political maneuvers, highlights the substantive points lost in the spectacle, and explains why this standoff could jeopardize crucial legislative progress. Will partisan gamesmanship stall sensible crypto regulation, or can Congress find common ground before the industry loses its momentum? Enjoying this content? SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast: https://pod.link/1438693620 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto Subscribe to the newsletter: https://breakdown.beehiiv.com/ Join the discussion: https://discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8 Follow on Twitter: NLW: https://twitter.com/nlw Breakdown: https://twitter.com/BreakdownNLW

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.
0:09.3	It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.
0:18.4	What's going on, guys? It is Wednesday, May 7th, and today we are talking about dueling
0:22.7	crypto hearings. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go
0:26.5	subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the
0:29.8	conversation, come join us on the breakers discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go
0:33.5	to bit.ly slash breakdown pod. Well, friends, yesterday saw not one but two crypto hearings in Congress
0:39.4	after Democrats followed through with their threatened walkout. On the docket in the House Financial
0:44.2	Services Committee had been a hearing to discuss the new market structure bill we covered on yesterday's show.
0:49.0	The session was a joint hearing with the House Ag Committee that has oversight of the CFTC and a
0:53.6	stake in forming crypto legislation. These hearings, believe it or not, do play an important role, allowing the
0:59.7	committee to ask the opinions of experts before making decisions on the final amendments to complex
1:04.1	and important legislation. They also very frustratingly sometimes provide a bully pulpit for people
1:08.9	to score their cheap points, but what are you going to do?
1:12.1	Alas, Democrat ranking member Maxine Waters decided not to avail herself of the positive opportunities of
1:17.3	these sessions, leading a walkout of the hearing. As the session got underway, Waters remained standing.
1:22.9	When called upon, she said, I object to this joint hearing because of the corruption of the
1:26.6	President of the United States and his ownership of crypto. Now, joint hearings require unanimous support, so Waters was
1:32.6	hoping to derail the hearing by objecting. Republican Representative Dusty Johnson had sought to
1:37.1	understand the basis of the objection and offered to, quote, work in good faith to remove the problem.
1:42.2	Johnson made the point that, quote, good regulatory rules of the
1:45.1	world, I think would provide an environment where people would have more faith in the marketplace.
	...

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