During a moment when Democrats are being accused of doing nothing, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is busy, perhaps busier than at any time in recent memory.
Senator Warren is appearing at town halls. She is on X constantly calling out illegal actions by the Trump administration, including this week’s Atlantic scandal. She is cutting videos and going on podcasts. With her position on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, she sent a letter about Trump’s crypto czar’s potential conflicts of interest. In the past, these tactics often brought results, but it’s not clear whether the same tactics will be effective against Trump 2.0.
What has spurred Senator Warren’s recent activism and will it make an impact?
From the Ivory Tower to Capitol Hill
Senator Warren and her husband come from Harvard Law, home to the most rarefied legal circles in the U.S. Her political career started in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, first with an appointment by President Obama and in 2012, and then by winning a seat in Congress as the first female Senator from Massachusetts.
Warren famously grilled Tim Sloan, the CEO of Wells Fargo, in 2017, calling for him to resign for his role in the fake accounts scandal.
She is most well known for the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was her idea, and one of the first agencies on the chopping block of Trump 2.0.
Of the many causes and organizations doomed by the return of Trump, Senator Warren must feel the death of the CFPB as an acutely personal outrage.
Perhaps, that has something to do with the renewed vigor we see in her public appearances and her sassy social media presence.
She must feel like the bad guys are winning, like they seemed to in the 2008 financial crisis, when only one middling investment banker faced prosecution after the entire industry committed fraud.
The Bad Boys of Crypto
Warren was a relentless thorn in the side of crypto entrepreneurs, who are getting off scot-free as the SEC drops charges and crypto moguls pal around with Donald Trump.
A 2022 announcement from her newsroom stated “… crypto threatens national security, climate, financial stability, and consumer and investor protections.”
At Disruption Banking, we look out for the retail investor, so on one hand, we tend to agree with Warren’s assessment that the volatility of digital assets is concerning and that “crypto scams, fraud, theft, and evasion continue to run rampant.”
However, we also believe that there are ground-breaking innovations happening in the ecosystem for digital assets, and they need a stable regulatory framework to thrive. That was not on offer by U.S. regulators during the Gary Gensler era, and we criticized that failure over and over.
While Biden was in office, the Democrats didn’t manage to pass any meaningful crypto legislation. It may have seemed less urgent given the collapse of FTX and the public’s subsequent distrust in the stability of digital assets.
Warren and her fellow crypto skeptics were so dogmatic they didn’t realize that crypto has a countercultural aspect that gives it asymmetric power. Nor did they anticipate key Republicans’ imminent embrace of the industry. Instead, they thought they could ignore crypto legislatively and smother it through enforcement actions.
The Overplayed Enforcement Hand
SEC chairman Gary Gensler acted as the primary bulwark against abuses of the crypto industry. Meanwhile, crypto moguls opened their wallets and a certain former president abruptly changed his tune on crypto.
In 2024, hundreds of millions from the crypto lobby poured into political campaigns across the United States. Silicon Valley’s golden child J.D. Vance became the Republican vice presidential candidate. Crypto-skeptics Senators Sherrod Brown and John Tester were defeated, tipping the Senate to Republican control.
The crypto super PAC Fairshake alone spent $139 million during the 2024 election, padding the coffers of 53 members of the incoming Congress. And yet, a curious detail perhaps Warren didn’t anticipate emerged: many of those 53 now sitting members of Congress are Democrats.
And therein lies the rub for Warren. As current Republicans acquiesce to whatever Trump wants, turning a blind eye to travesties like the MELANIA meme coin, pro-crypto legislation, such as the GENIUS Act, enjoys bipartisan support.
Kamala Harris realized too late that the Warren contingent had overplayed their hand and crypto moguls poured as much into Trump’s election as Elon Musk did. She tried to moderate her stance, in the closing weeks before election day, but it was too little, too late.
Warren versus Trump 2.0
Since Trump roared back into the White House, very little Democrats have done to oppose his agenda has blunted his momentum. Although Chuck Schumer has dutifully mumbled through various prepared statements with his glasses hanging on the edge of his nose, the main opposition has come from the media and the courts.
While there’s widespread talk of the need for fresh faces in the Democratic Party, Warren isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. She doesn’t face re-election until 2030 and her approval rating in her home district was +18, as of the end of 2023.
However, it remains to be seen what influence Warren will have in the next four years. She has less allies in Congress than she did six months ago. The CFPB has been neutered into almost non-existence. Her videos and posts don’t seem to penetrate beyond the party faithful.
Meanwhile, Fairshake has already raised $116 million to spend on the 2026 midterm. So, in the unlikely event Democrats take back both houses of Congress in 2026, incoming members might not share Warren’s skepticism of the crypto industry.
Clearly in the coming months the Senator from Massachusetts will plod on, firing broadsides in broad strokes against Trump and Elon Musk, just like we saw this week during the Atlantic scandal. But, without a Senate majority or like-minded regulators there to enforce her platform, Warren might just be yelling into the wind.
Author: Laird Dilorenzo
#Crypto #Blockchain #DigitalAssets #DeFi
Laird Dilorenzo is a hatchet thrower and wordsmith.
The editorial team at #DisruptionBanking has taken all precautions to ensure that no persons or organizations have been adversely affected or offered any sort of financial advice in this article. This article is most definitely not financial advice.
See Also:
What is the GENIUS Act? Banks and Fintechs Rush Towards Stablecoins | Disruption Banking
Has the Crypto Renaissance Really Begun? | Disruption Banking
The Rise of the Retail Investor with Mosaic Alpha | Disruption Banking
