Cryptocurrency is now a hot topic in United States politics. It wasn’t always like this, however, especially since just a small percentage of U.S. politicians seem to have a baseline understanding of digital currencies.

Nonetheless, it’s now a wedge issue poised to morph into a destructive political football destined to occupy a new, uncomfortable space in the consistently devolving culture war. Although this is certainly uninspiring news for common sense political discourse in the United States, it remains to be determined how this will affect the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Let’s start with how we got here. 

A few legislators in Congress have been quietly working on common-sense cryptocurrency regulation for the last couple of years. These informed Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have thoughtfully taken up the matter and drafted legislative measures to define cryptocurrencies, hedge investor risk, defend against fraud and integrate digital currency into a long-established centralized system. Those waiting for lawmakers on either side of the aisle to embrace total decentralization will be waiting a very long time. Nobody in the 117th Congress is considering this, and it’s unlikely anyone in the 118th, 119th or 120th will either.

Until recently, cryptocurrency and blockchain matters weren’t discussed in the halls of Congress, just like they weren’t coffee table issues for the majority of disinterested American citizens. They weren’t political wedge issues and were never topics of debate between candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential campaign. Most Americans simply didn’t know or didn’t care about cryptocurrency.

Things changed for several reasons, not the least of which were the Twitter proclivities of billionaire and Dogecoin enthusiast Elon Musk. On April 25, Musk tweeted: “Am hosting SNL on May 8.” The price of Dogecoin closed at $0.27 that day. The following day, NBC confirmed

Cryptocurrency is now a hot topic in United States politics. It wasn’t always like this, however, especially since just a small percentage of U.S. politicians seem to have a baseline understanding of digital currencies.

Nonetheless, it’s now a wedge issue poised to morph into a destructive political football destined to occupy a new, uncomfortable space in the consistently devolving culture war. Although this is certainly uninspiring news for common sense political discourse in the United States, it remains to be determined how this will affect the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Let’s start with how we got here. 

A few legislators in Congress have been quietly working on common-sense cryptocurrency regulation for the last couple of years. These informed Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have thoughtfully taken up the matter and drafted legislative measures to define cryptocurrencies, hedge investor risk, defend against fraud and integrate digital currency into a long-established centralized system. Those waiting for lawmakers on either side of the aisle to embrace total decentralization will be waiting a very long time. Nobody in the 117th Congress is considering this, and it’s unlikely anyone in the 118th, 119th or 120th will either.

Until recently, cryptocurrency and blockchain matters weren’t discussed in the halls of Congress, just like they weren’t coffee table issues for the majority of disinterested American citizens. They weren’t political wedge issues and were never topics of debate between candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential campaign. Most Americans simply didn’t know or didn’t care about cryptocurrency.

Things changed for several reasons, not the least of which were the Twitter proclivities of billionaire and Dogecoin enthusiast Elon Musk. On April 25, Musk tweeted: “Am hosting SNL on May 8.” The price of Dogecoin closed at $0.27 that day. The following day, NBC confirmed