Republican U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis took aim at two federal agencies on behalf of the crypto industry this week, just days before the wide-reaching transition of the federal government when President-elect Donald Trump again takes office.
Lummis warned the U.S. Marshals Office to slow down its crypto asset sales and she cautioned officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that anybody who gets rid of evidence about whether the agency directed banks to drop digital assets clients will be prosecuted, touching on two of the sector’s most prominent issues.
Keeping the idea of a U.S. bitcoin reserve top-of-mind as a new Congress starts work and Trump returns to the White House next week, the Wyoming Republican sent a letter this week to the director of the U.S. Marshals Office cautioning that the department should slow down its process for liquidating the crypto assets seized in the Silk Road case. The sales of bitcoin (BTC), including current holdings of almost 70,000 bitcoin worth about $6.9 billion, are inappropriate, she argued, considering Trump’s interest in a U.S. bitcoin strategic reserve.
“The Department continues to aggressively push forward with liquidation plans despite pending legal challenges, demonstrating an unusual urgency to dispose of these assets,” Lummis wrote. “This rushed approach, occurring during the presidential transition period, directly contradicts the incoming administration’s stated policy objectives regarding the establishment of a National Bitcoin Stockpile.”
On its own, there’s little authority the Marshals Office would have to change course from the predetermined liquidation plans already in motion, and it can’t make decisions based on a hypothetical government stockpile. The president and Congress would have to move to formally establish a reserve and a process by which the U.S. could redirect seized or purchased tokens into that fund.
Crypto markets also noted on Thursday the reports that Trump may be interested, too, in reserves of other, U.S.-based tokens.
Lummis also sent a letter to the FDIC on Thursday, saying that agency insiders have reported that there’s an internal effo
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Author: Jesse Hamilton
