Short thoughts, notes, links, and musings by Molly White. RSS 
The Coinbase-backed "Stand With Crypto" advocacy group has declared Illinois Senate candidate Juliana Stratton to be "strongly against crypto" solely because she made a statement criticizing the $5.5 million the crypto industry had already spent to oppose her
There are a number of senators who’ve taken a look at this but there seems to be no will to move forward because No. 1, people don’t understand A.I., but because, No. 2, we’ve seen the entry of really big political money tied to A.I. Just like the crypto space, a lot of senators are scared to stick their neck out even though action is being demanded of us on this issue.
Fascinating comment on AI regulation from Elissa Slotkin of all people, who received $10 million — the second-most support — from crypto PACs in 2024.
Great background on why Coinbase sank the crypto bill they’d just spent months lobbying for, and the fundamental conflict between the banking lobby and the crypto lobby when it comes to stablecoin interest.
how magnanimous of him
“We’ve got a chance to do a new draft and hopefully get back into a markup in a few weeks,” [Coinbase CEO Brian] Armstrong said.
he saw Mamdani talking about housing and thought: but what about crypto?
my guess is this is more of a hail mary attempt to get blockchain/AI money and influence behind him. we haven't seen much crypto industry spending in races below the federal level, but i also wouldn't put it past them to get involved here at the last minute
Trump speaking to crypto executives while signing the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill: “I got you guys out of so much trouble... They’ve got plenty of cash, and it’s great that you’re on our side.”
Note: I retained Trump’s comments about Biden to avoid taking his statement out of context, but his claim that Biden “dropped all charges” against crypto executives during his (or Harris’s) campaign is false.
The GENIUS Act stablecoin bill has stalled in the Senate with key Democrats — including some of its early co-sponsors — voting against it. Democratic opposition increased after Trump’s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency platform released its own stablecoin, allowing the president to profit from transactions including a $2 billion deal between the Emirati state-owned investment firm and the Binance crypto platform.
Senators who voted against the bill include Ruben Gallego (AZ), Mark Warner (VA), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE), Andy Kim (NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), and Angela Alsobrooks (MD). Gallego was one of the top recipients of crypto industry campaign funds in 2024, receiving $10 million in crypto super PAC backing.
@molly0xfff White House crypto advisers think tariff revenues or gold reserves could be used to buy Bitcoin, benefiting the president's billionaire crypto backers #cryptonews #cryptoindustry #cryptolobby #tariff #bitcoin #news #uspolitics ♬ original sound - Molly White
SBF's master plan right now is to whine that his bribes didn't work on the Democrats and go "but I bribed the Republicans too!" and then wait expectantly
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer: the critics who think we’ve bought out the government are refusing to engage with the nuanced and complicated fact that Trump used to be anti-crypto before we started spending hundreds of millions of dollars on politics
