Senator Warren says crypto firms shouldn’t partner with ex-government officials 

Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., says crypto companies and lobbying groups that hire and partner with former government officials are “stonewalling” bipartisan efforts

article-image

US Senator Elizabeth Warren | Gage Skidmore/"Elizabeth Warren" (CC license)

share

Crypto firms have a “revolving door” of ex-law enforcement and federal officials, according to one US senator who alleges these recruits are being unfairly used to block policy. 

Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., says crypto companies and lobbying groups that hire and partner with former government workers are undermining lawmakers’ bipartisan efforts to regulate the industry. 

In a letter sent Monday evening to crypto exchange Coinbase and lobby groups Coin Center and the Blockchain Association, Warren said the industry’s recruitment strategy is harming progress in Washington. 

Warren cited a November Politico article in which the author claims the crypto industry is “flexing a not-so secret weapon: a small army of former defense, national security and law enforcement officials.” 

“The abuse of the revolving door is appalling, revealing that the crypto industry is spending millions to give itself a veneer of legitimacy while fighting tooth and nail to stonewall common sense rules designed to restrict the use of crypto for terror financing,” Warren wrote in the letter. 

Warren, according to the letter, is primarily concerned with how crypto companies and lobbying groups are leveraging these relationships to block legislation she says would crack down on crypto’s role in funding terrorists like Hamas. 

Read more: ‘No evidence’ Hamas raised millions in crypto, Elliptic says

Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association, said Warren’s letter was a response to her agency’s November letter sent to the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees, which was signed by 40 former military officials, national security and intelligence experts. 

“Sen. Warren should focus her efforts on the perpetrators, not those working hand-in-hand with US law enforcement to catch bad actors,” Smith wrote on X in response to Warren’s letter, adding that “the industry is eager to engage on policy issues.”

Industry members pushed back on Warren’s claims, arguing that partnering with others to propose policy is a “fundamental right.” 

“Engaging like-minded experts to advocate against legislative proposals that one sincerely believes are unconstitutional and detrimental to the nation’s welfare does not constitute ‘undermining bipartisan efforts in Congress,’” Coin Center said in a statement in response to the letter Tuesday.

The letter comes a day after Coinbase, which has ramped up its lobbying efforts in recent months with the launch of its nonprofit “Stand with Crypto Alliance,” announced its support for crypto-focused super PAC Fairshake

Sen. Warren’s office did not immediately respond to Blockworks’ request for comment. 


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

Interchain Labs will focus on sovereign L1s and institutional demand, abandoning plans for smart contracts on the Cosmos Hub

article-image

Also, only three tokens have outperformed bitcoin so far this year: XMR, HYPE and SKY

article-image

The fund group has submitted proposals in recent months for other funds that would hold litecoin, solana, XRP, HBAR, Sui and others

article-image

Momentum’s back — BTC leads, risk assets follow

article-image

Ondo Finance’s acquisition of blockchain development company Strangelove follows its buy of Oasis Pro

article-image

Cryptocurrency and stock traders alike had a lot to unpack Wednesday