Seventy-eight House Democrats voted Thursday to further deregulate the cryptocurrency industry, which will help make Donald Trump rich.
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a bill crafted by and for the crypto industry, passed the House in a 294-134 vote, installing a new regulatory framework for when digital assets should be considered a commodity or a security. But there’s nothing clear about the so-called CLARITY Act.
While the bill provides long-awaited clarity for entrepreneurs and investors, it also grants broad exemptions for decentralized finance actors, gutting federal oversight and allowing crypto thieves, hackers, and scammers to run rampant, according to Americans for Financial Reform.
The CLARITY Act gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission primary regulatory oversight authority over spot digital commodities, common cryptocurrencies that can be traded immediately and derive their value from blockchain as determined on the spot market, ending years of uncertainty over their regulation.
The CLARITY Act exempts certain digital commodities from registration under the Security and Exchange Commission creating more avenues to sidestep requirements to disclose information to investors and allowing for fraudsters to fundraise without a hint of transparency.
For example, under the CLARITY Act, a non-crypto company could tokenize its assets, placing all of its stock on blockchain and thus evading all SEC regulation.
The legislation includes a major carveout for decentralized finance platforms, yet another money-making scheme the president has embraced. World Liberty Financial (WLFI), is a decentralized finance platform that is majority owned by DT Marks DEFI LCC, a Trump business entity. Trump currently serves as the company’s “Chief Crypto Advocate,” and his sons and other White House employees also stand to get rich—a marked conflict of interest as the president has sweeping powers to conduct crypto-policy.
The legislation also declares that a range of digital assets such as meme coins and non-fungible tokens are neither securities nor commodities, minimizing federal oversight and investor protection. Trump has been criticized for enriching himself off of his $TRUMP memecoin, and conducting a blatant pay-for-access scheme by hosting the top coin buyers at an ultimately underwhelming gala dinner earlier this year.
See which Senate Democrats voted to advance the bill below:
- Pete Aguilar – California
- Yassamin Ansari – Arizona
- Jake Auchincloss – Massachusetts
- Ami Bera – California
- Brendan Boyle – Pennsylvania
- Nikki Budzinski – Illinois
- Janelle Bynum – Oregon
- Salud Carbajal – California
- Mike Conaway – New Jersey
- Lou Correa – California
- Jim Costa – California
- Angine Craig – Minnesota
- Henry Cuellar – Texas
- Don Davis – North Carolina
- Suzan DelBene – Washington
- Cleo Fields – Louisiana
- Shomari Figures – Alabama
- Lois Frankel – Florida
- Laura Gillen – New York
- Jared Golden – Maine
- Dan Goldman – New York
- Jimmy Gomez – California
- Tony Gonzalez – Texas
- Maggie Goodlander – New Hampshire
- Josh Gottheimer – New Jersey
- Adam Gray – California
- Josh Harder – California
- Steven Horsford – Nevada
- Chrissy Houlahan – Pennsylvania
- Jonathan Jackson – Illinois
- Julie Johnson – Texas
- Ro Khanna – California
- Raja Krishnamoorthi – Illinois
- Greg Landsman – Ohio
- George Latimer – New York
- Kevin Lee – Nevada
- Mike Levin – California
- Ted Lieu – California
- Zoe Lofgren – California
- John Mannion – New York
- Lucy McBath – Georgia
- Sarah McBride – Delaware
- April McClain Delaney – Maryland
- Kristen McDonald Rivet – Michigan
- Rob Menendez – New Jersey
- Dave Min – California
- Jared Moskowitz – Florida
- Seth Moulton – Massachusetts
- Kevin Mullin – California
- Jimmy Panetta – California
- Chris Pappas – New Hampshire
- Nancy Pelosi – California
- Marie Gluesenkamp Perez – Washington
- Nellie Pou – New Jersey
- Josh Riley – New York
- Raul Ruiz – California
- Patrick Ryan – New York
- Brad Schneider – Illinois
- Hillary Scholten – Michigan
- Kim Schrier – Washington
- Terri Sewell – Alabama
- Mikie Sherrill – New Jersey
- Lateefah Simon – California
- Eric Sorenson – Illinois
- Darren Soto – Florida
- Greg Stanton – Arizona
- Haley Stevens – Michigan
- Marilyn Strickland – Washington
- Suhas Subramanyam – Virginia
- Tom Suozzi – New York
- Shri Thanedar – Michigan
- Mike Thompson – California
- Ritchie Torres – New York
- Derek Tran – California
- Gabe Vasquez – New Mexico
- Marc Veasey – Texas
- Eugene Vindman – Virginia
- George Whitesides – California
The CLARITY Act is just one stage of what House Republicans have termed “crypto week.” Lawmakers also passed the GENIUS Act Thursday, which will grant “hundreds—perhaps even thousands—of American companies” the power to issue their own bespoke cryptocurrencies, unleashing financial chaos, according to Berkeley economist Barry Eichengreen. The bill passed by a vote of 308-122, with 102 Democrats voting in favor.
This story has been updated.
The post Every Democrat Who Helped Pass Trump’s Dangerous Crypto Bill appeared first on New Republic.
