“I am excited by the possibilities of incorporating digital assets into the American financial system. I’ve been encouraged to see almost universal agreement from regulators, politicians and the digital asset industry that it’s time to bring digital assets into the regulatory perimeter.”
Born, raised and educated in Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis is one of the earliest Bitcoin adopters in Congress, having purchased some of the cryptocurrency in 2013 on the advice of her son-in-law. She entered public office in 1979, shortly after earning two degrees at the University of Wyoming, serving in the Wyoming House of Representatives and later in the state Senate and as treasurer. A member of the Republican party, Lummis moved to the national stage by representing her state in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2009 to 2017 before running for the U.S. Senate. Since 2021, she has served as one of Wyoming’s two senators — the other being John Barrasso — becoming the first woman to represent the interests of Wyoming’s roughly 600,000 residents in the Senate.
As a senator, Lummis has frequently supported legislation in favor of crypto adoption in the United States, helping to launch the Senate Financial Innovation Caucus in 2021 and promoting bills aimed at clarifying the definition of a broker in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law. Her current term in the U.S. Senate is expected to end in 2027.
Together with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Lummis introduced the Responsible Financial Innovation Act in 2022, a bill aimed at addressing the respective jurisdictions of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission as well as “stablecoin regulation, banking, tax treatment of digital assets, and interagency coordination.” Despite support from many lawmakers, the bill did not make it out of committee and have the opportunity for a full vote.
Many members of Congress were under scrutiny in 2022 after certain lawmakers and the public expressed support for a ban on elected officials investing in stocks or cryptocurrencies. Lummis has previously disclosed investments in Bitcoin, and even following the market crash, said she felt comfortable allowing people to use the crypto asset as part of their retirement funds.
The Wyoming senator will likely remain in office until her term at the U.S. Senate ends in January 2027. She sits on the Senate Banking Committee under the leadership of Chair Sherrod Brown, who has suggested an outright ban on crypto and frequently associates digital assets with criminal activity such as cybercrimes, drug trafficking, human trafficking and the financing of terrorism.
Crypto firms in the United States are likely to be under scrutiny in 2023 as U.S. lawmakers continue to explore the collapse of the FTX exchange and regulatory agencies launch additional enforcement actions. The Senate may have the opportunity to revisit Lummis’ Responsible Financial Innovation Act or alternative legislation pushed by other lawmakers in the 118th Congress.
