Sen. Cynthia Lummis is a Bitcoin evangelist and MAGA hardliner who’s won over the crypto community, even as she faces scrutiny over her personal investments.
As the Senate was nearing the finish line on its massive infrastructure bill last week, the very online and very intense world of cryptocurrency was looking to Capitol Hill and getting antsy.
In order to pay for a $1 trillion investment in roads, railways and utilities infrastructure, the bill offered new rules governing how owners of digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum report the value of their holdings to the IRS — a change projected to bring in an additional $28 billion in federal tax revenue.
Crypto industry advocates and data privacy hawks, however, saw the changes as nightmarish. They argued the broadly written legislation would prove a burden on the nascent industry by imposing tough reporting requirements on third-party developers who make the system hum, while endangering their privacy.
Under the law, so-called crypto miners — people who harness computing power and copious electricity to put coins into circulation — would be classified as “brokers.” That means that someone mining cryptocurrencies would be subject to onerous tax forms to the IRS, and it would make it harder across the board for people buying and selling crypto to evade taxes.
“While we ultimately failed to get our amendment into the infrastructure bill, this fight has a silver lining: Congress is awake to the digital asset community, and the digital asset community is beginning to organize.”
— Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
Many of the millions of people who own Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies tend to be apolitical — or selectively political with niche fixations. It’s a fitting stance for people looking to limit government influence over currency, adopt cutting-edge technologies, or just make a quick buck.
But during this latest policy battle on Capitol Hill, crypto fans had an unlikely ally: a libertarian conservative-turned-MAGA hardiner, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).
As the infrastructure bill moved forward, Lummis, who owns roughly $230,000 worth of Bitcoin and has been a crypto evangelist for years, partnered with two established fiscal wonks — Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) — to craft an amendment intended to protect the third-party crypto ecosystem.
Lummis tapped into the online crypto community to build support inside the Capitol, tweeting updates multiple times a day and encouraging users to call their senators. She approvingly retweeted a meme of Paul Revere — bearing laser-shooting eyes, a crypto subculture signature that Lummis herself adopted in February — warning of the imminent danger and urging action.
“Every call, tweet and email helps,” Lummis tweeted on Aug. 6. “I know many of you aren’t all that political so thank you for coming out of your comfort zone to advocate for the future.”
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