Republican Senate candidate Cynthia Lummis has defeated her Democratic challenger, booking a six-year term as a US senator from the state of Wyoming. Lummis is an ardent supporter of Bitcoin, having first purchased it back in 2013 when it was worth just over $300.
The senator-elect learned about the technology from her son-in-law, the Chief Product Officer of crypto financial services firm Unchained Capital, while serving eight years as Wyoming's sole representative in the House from 2009 to 2017.
Lummis ran on a campaign closely linked to President Trump's agenda. Her campaign website promotes an "America First" agenda, a move toward uranium mining and carbon capture technologies, cutting red tape for agriculture inspections, protecting gun rights, and eliminating abortions.
Over the past few weeks, Wyoming’s legislature has deliberately passed a number of bills that will almost certainly be signed by the governor and become law. In so doing, Wyoming is making a play to be most crypto friendly state in the country—and an example for other states, and perhaps even D.C., to follow.
It’s clear that Wyoming, a state known more for its vast ranch lands than its technological developments, is making a bid to become the Malta of the Americas, a safe haven for the burgeonin...
She's also prominently highlighted the national debt, calling herself a "fierce budget hawk" who will "work tirelessly to cut spending." Which is where her admiration for Bitcoin comes in. She's worried that a spendthrift fiscal policy combined with a print-happy monetary policy could weaken the dollar's strength as a reserve currency. Lummis told attendees at the Wyoming Blockchain Stampede in September:
“I want to address America’s debt when I go to the U.S. Senate. But I also want to protect the value that America’s workers generate through their labor. We cannot continue to debase our currency and expect that the American workers’ wages and savings will be unaffected.”
Bitcoin could be a more secure store of value, in Lummis' eyes: I bought my first bitcoin in 2013 because I believe in the economic power of scarcity and the potential for bitcoin to address some of the manipulations in our financial system."
It's only fitting that Wyoming should send a Bitcoin enthusiast to the Senate, which has notably few members keen on crypto relative to the lower house. In 2019, Wyoming passed a series of pro-cryptocurrency and blockchain bills designed to attract innovation to the state.
Just this fall, the state has granted two bank charters to cryptocurrency companies to offer financial services that bridge fiat and digital currencies—the first such licenses in the country.
Caitlin Long, the driving force behind Wyoming's blockchain embrace as well as Avanti, which earned a bank charter in October, congratulated Lummis on her win.
Malaysia's largest national electric utility company, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), is helping authorities crack down on electricity theft tied to illegal crypto mining operations in the country, which it claims has jumped nearly 300% over the last six years.
The surge in complaints "reflects increasing public awareness of reporting on illicit crypto mining activities," according to a statement provided by TNB to local media on Monday.
Of the 610 cases it first discovered in 2018, the number has...
Last week’s Token2049 conference brought together some of the biggest names in crypto, and as the sun set on another busy gathering for the crypto industry in Dubai, we couldn’t help but reflect on some of the weird, wacky, and thought-provoking things we heard along the way.
What can be overheard at a conference reveals the most honest narratives behind crypto. Founders and CEOs outline their vision for the future on panels in front of hundreds of attendees, but the true value is often found in...
Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies. This week: Bitcoin miners wrangle with malaise, Coinbase tries a little misdirection ahead of its earnings miss, and sources say Meta is stablecoin curious.
Bitcoin miners’ malaise
Publicly traded Bitcoin miners have faced some dark days this week.
Stocking up on BTC wasn’t enough to help MARA Holdings, which trades on the Nasdaq under the MARA ticker, outrun a lousy quarterly report on Thursday.
R...