The Bitcoin Bloc: A New Force in American Politics | Bitcoin 2026

It's so great to be here with you guys. You know, for all of us who worked in crypto for and and policy for a long time, there's always a discussion about how you get regulatory clarity, how you fix the rules, how you provide our community with the certainty that it needs. And I thought it'd be particularly fun to be able to sit on a stage with the folks that make it happen. So, all three of you have really been leaders on crypto and Bitcoin issues and we're very grateful for it. um you know in a funny way at the moment we're trying to get the market structure legislation through the uh Senate. Uh but the interesting thing is the work that we needed from the three of you at least on market structure is already done. Um so uh Congresswoman I don't know if you can sort of start off and kind of talk about crypto generally how you think about it as a congresswoman and and what's what are you hearing from your constituents? Uh, I think the best way to describe how I feel about crypto or stable coins or digital assets is that it's financial democracy. And so the 250th anniversary of our nation and what better way to epitomize what America is all about than embracing innovation, embracing merit, embracing a work ethic, embracing going against the odds, which you all had to do, uh to number one get legitimacy, and number two get legislation that allows you to continue to innovate and secondly not lose place to bad actors such as the Chinese Communist Party. >> Yeah. A lot of people don't know that the country that spends the most on uh blockchain innovation is China. They have a control system by the government. They've made Bitcoin illegal uh because they're trying to control this technology. So there's a huge national security dimension to that. >> Absolutely. >> Congressman Nun, how about you? Like how do you think about Bitcoin? And >> well, I'm thrilled to be out here. I started mining Bitcoin about 20 years ago when I was working in the intelligence community. somewhere in some dumpster there is a a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of Bitcoin that's been mined. We threw it out, but here we are 20 years down the road now all of us serving in Congress. I've been privileged to get to serve both on financial services which deals with the securities aspect of where Bitcoin and digital assets are as well as the ad committee where we're serving you know everything we're doing on the commodities piece and guys from Iowa we get this soybean beef corn we know commodities well digital assets has a space here and that's where I think you've seen both in the Senate and the House the commodities markets really moving as first shooter in this space and you also highlight the role that our competitors play here I think of not only is something that every American should have the opportunity, one in five currently are looking at digital assets or have it, but we also have other competitors who are not waiting in line for this. And so I serve on the China Select Committee and the China Commission. It's going directly after where Beijing is looking not only the compute process, but how it can have a market share that could really jeopardize the United States's standing in both Bitcoin and digital assets marching forward. So this is both a federation of use, but it's also a national security item that we're aggressively going after. >> Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think we should talk a little bit more about that. But Congressman Lawler, tell me how you think about Bitcoin and crypto. >> Well, look, I I as a member of the Financial Services Committee, uh we have been heavily focused over the last two congresses on getting these pieces of legislation across the finish line because we want America to lead. We want America to be the innovative uh force that it is uh in this space. Uh but we know that we can't have 50 different regulatory frameworks across the country. We need a federal regulatory structure and that's why it was so important to get the Genius Act passed last year uh and signed into law and why we have worked diligently to get clarity across the finish line so that we do have market structure that the rules of the road are there uh so that the innovation and American entrepreneurship can really uh flourish and so you know we passed clarity last July through the House uh and the Senate obviously has uh been working at uh Senate speed which is glacial uh but but they are hopefully getting there in short order. I thought it was uh terrific. Secretary Bessant had an op-ed about a month ago few weeks ago really encouraging the Senate to get clarity across the finish line uh in a bipartisan way so that we can get this moving forward. Well, and as you said, you sit on the financial services committee, uh, just like Congressman Nun does, and you see a lot of the lobbying that occurs from entrenched interests who are nervous about what Bitcoin means for their existing business models or what stable coin means mean for their businesses. How do you navigate that as a as a policy maker? Uh, because I mean, we're seeing it in our work on Washington that the the kind of the incumbents are fighting furiously against Bitcoin and crypto. How do you handle that when you get that kind of incoming? >> Well, regardless of the issue, uh if it's somewhat contentious or something that uh obviously is top of mind, there's going to be uh folks from all sides trying to lobby Congress. And look, most members are not experts on these issues. And we need the industries to weigh in and give us uh important information and feedback. uh and sometimes in legislation there are unintended consequences of the way something is written. But I think there's no question as we've worked through this some of the entrenched interests as you uh you know uh framed it uh certainly have been pushing back against uh competition uh in in the marketplace and you know I think it is always striking that balance between uh kind of what is existing and how do we allow America to continue to lead and be that innovative force. And I think what you're seeing even with the big banks uh you know many of whom have pushed back on genius and uh they're pushing back on rewards for instance um the fact is they are also simultaneously bringing people inhouse to expand their digital assets departments because they understand this is uh the way of the future and they understand that they got to be uh playing ball. uh but you know as with any policy changes uh you know there's always a a pull and push effect and so uh I I feel that as we get through this year if we could have past genius and past clarity we are putting America on the forefront of leading in the digital assets and crypto space. Uh and that is important as we move forward and there's always going to be tweaks along the way. there's always going to be uh you know new regulatory uh you know changes or adjustments that are made as you learn more and as we go. >> Yeah, I that's a great answer. Congressman Nun, you sort of face it from two committees. You're on the ad committee and the banking committee or the financial services committee. So you're seeing um sort of the pushing and shoving from all directions. Like how do you how do you think about this? Well, you know, I want to give a lot of credit to the folks who have worked in digital assets and Bitcoin for doing a dramatic sea change for where we were just three years ago. Look, Mike and I came in together. I remember my first act of Congress was we were sitting on a Zoom call as FTX collapsed and Silicon Valley Bank was hanging in the, you know, the pendulum on this. And we have members of the Treasury, we've got members from industry, we have members of Congress on there. I won't give any names away, but maybe Chuck Schumer comes to mind trying to tell us all the future of digital assets. The challenge was he couldn't find the unmute button on Zoom. These are the challenges of being able to educate a new generation of leader in Congress to be able to drive something forward. What we've worked on in financial services and the ad committee is to be able to roll back what the SEC was doing, which was really a fine fee and punishment structure. If you were getting a call from Gary Ginsler, it's because he was calling you in to find you millions of dollars for something he didn't even fully understand. He did a great job auditioning for Secretary of Treasury, but he did a horrible job being able to showcase that he could really be a leader in this space. And so, huge compliments to a lot of the advocates who came in and took what became the Genius Act that passed the Senate by 68 to 31. That's not a Republican or a Democrat issue. That is now a national mandate. We were able to get the Genius Act through in the House by nearly 400 to 100. Hardly any or 300 to 100. Hardly anything passes in Congress by those margins anymore. And we want to move forward with both what we've been able to do in the Clarity Act. I was privileged to get to lead the Financial Technology Protection Act. It's the third rung here. And it says, let's have, you know, our law enforcement, our intelligence agencies work with our partners here to add legitimacy to Bitcoin. And that was something that came from industry. They wanted to make sure this was a good investment, not just for some of the suntan bros from Miami to get involved in this, but for some of the suntan from the arms down farmers in Iowa to get involved in this. I think that's a good piece of advocacy that we've been able to enshrine, move forward, and now we're executing. >> Yeah, Congresswoman, same question to you, but Zach just rates a really important point. this community has kind of done the hard work to show up to Washington to meet with you and your colleagues. Kind of talk about the uh kind of how you're seeing constituents talk to you and and how the grassroots matter. >> Well, certainly you get uh you don't get the same amount of uh push back as you did on the financial services committee. So, I sit on veterans and energy and commerce, but I'll tell you one of the most um compelling reasons to support uh digital assets and Bitcoin or cryptocurrency. Um I left home at 16, the fourth of uh eight kids. My dad was career air force, my mom had a GED, very humble circumstances. And when I left home, started working in community college. I left home to put myself through medical school. But at the time it was very common in the 70s and 80s for couples to get together, not have a legal structure, and for them to combine assets. I never wanted my assets or my pay combined with anyone. And to this day, I'm not giving anybody marital advice, but to this day, we don't have a joint checking account. Now, now, why was that important? It was important to me to be able to have the freedom to go where I wanted to go. And if things didn't work out, I had parents who had a bad marriage, in-laws who had a bad marriage, I would be able to leave. And meeting with women who underwent domestic violence, and having had the wherewithal as young women to find Bitcoin or find someplace where they had secure assets that couldn't be touched by either a violent partner or by a government. I mean, think about about what happened to the truckers in Canada and what has happened with our financial institutions being pressured by our government to not loan money or commit loans or allow banking if you're the wrong type of person or someone they don't agree with in a political sense. So from that standpoint, for me, I think there is a place in the financial landscape for all of these institutions. What we needed was a structure to allow consumers to have confidence. We need to allow the good actors in um cryptocurrency, digital assets, stable coin to have a place and have regulation that protects them from the bad actors and from all the propaganda that you get from the Chinese Communist Party. And I think those are very compelling reasons. And lastly, and we mentioned this when we were out waiting, is that farmers, senior citizens in our areas, our districts, you know, they want to know if it's safe. younger people are investing, their children or grandchildren may investing. They want to know if it's safe for them. And we know that through what we did in the Genius Act that having backing in treasuries actually helps to increase the demand for treasuries and helps to stabilize the US dollar as a reserve currency. So that's good for those individuals as well too. Um the last point I'm going to make is that I'm on energy and commerce committee. So where we have a lot of intersection with constituents is on energy. So energy policy having a national energy strategy having energy to meet demand whether it is refiguring our grid system or whether it is uh bringing new assets online whether it's wind solar hydro nuclear uh bofuels uh that we have in Iowa that's where I come in to help to navigate and educate uh and you know reassure people that we can have data centers we can have Bitcoin mining we can have uh digital assets and AI development and their electricity prices aren't necessarily going to go up. >> Yeah. No, I'm I'm I'm really glad what you said a moment ago because people think this is kind of an abstraction, but it really matters for people um for people who don't have the economic means or who are vulnerable in some ways to have an asset that they can control. I mean, all of you have seen it. We've seen it in societies where you've got a um political instability, financial instability, hyperinflation, uh government that steals the wealth from the public, Bitcoin, crypto, stable dollar, stable coins become a refuge from authoritarianism and a protection from dysfunction. Uh, so it's really important that you say that, but sometimes you don't see it in a in a society of our of like ours where we're blessed with a lot of wealth and a lot of resources, but I I'd love to hear you talk a little bit more about it like about how how important that is to understand that personal use case. >> I think it exactly it puts that personal touch on it. Uh, and again, it's very much in alignment with uh the United States values. uh what we value in work ethic, what we value in freedom and you know China would want nothing more to continue to lead in this area. So the innovation and what's happened both with clarity and the genius act and anti- central bank digital currency that very much should number one reassure Americans but number two allow us to continue to do the things that we do best in this country which is innovate progress improvise adapt uh and then really go out and you know strike the uh toward the new frontier. So you're a uh Congressman, you're a veteran as well and you you were talking about the national security case. Um in a way China banning Bitcoin brought a lot of the miners into the United States. So you have a lot of the kind of validation in infrastructure of Bitcoin in the US. But right now we have huge adoption of stable coins. Most of them aren't even issued under the US rules. No US oversight. Um talk about kind of the national talk further about the national security case around crypto. Well, let's recognize where we came from. Four years ago, we were driving all innovation, including in digital assets, particularly in Bitcoin overseas. And as a result, that was to the benefit of London and Singapore. But it was also to the benefit of Moscow, Tron, and certainly Beijing. They wanted to compete in this space. by the fact that we've been able to move forward just over the last 18 months and to be able to provide not only a safe harbor but an innovation cell right here in the United States for digital assets. We are going far above and beyond and making this the place where not only Bitcoin mining but US dollarbacked stable coin can find a future and we want to be able to continue to drive the US dollar as the reserve currency of the world but that means we've got to be able to move smartly into the digital asset space. Stablecoin gives us that. There are additional hurdles that I would say we should be working on. One of the pieces of legislation I'm leading is to make sure we end the double taxation on things like Bitcoin mining. We don't do it for any other kind of data harvesting. Why did this become in the crosshairs? So going forward making sure that Bitcoin can thrive, can mine, and not become an ingress route for Chinesebacked investors. Mc Marionette deal and I deal with this all the time on Chinese trying to buy farmland. Now, the Chinese are trying to get in and buy US-based u Bitcoin mining operations or at least have a tangible asset. The moment they get a majority stakeholding share and something as revolutionary as Bitcoin, the entire dynamics of the world start changing and not for the better. It puts the United States on our back heels. So, I've been spending my time trying to kick ass with these two in Washington DC, but particularly holding the Chinese accountable on this line. We've got great allies in this area. I will offer this though. What we don't want to see, and yes, you're talking to a group of Republicans here, is all the good work that's been done over the last 18 months undone if we lose the election coming up in November. Because the reality becomes the president and a Democrat Congress are going to go to war with each other. But even more so, we're going to hold still on things like digital assets while the rest of the world moves forward. That doesn't just give London and Singapore advantage. That gives those other bad actors I talked about the opportunity to pull vault us over the final 24 months. So let's work smartly. Let's work with industry and partner leads and canly let's work for our constituents to continue to deliver wins like we've done over the past year. >> Yeah, you met you the tax issue is so important. Congressman Max Miller of Ohio, Congressman Steven Horford of Vegas, so the home hometown congressman, >> uh, and now Chairman, uh, Jason Smith of the House Ways and Means Committee are playing a really important role to try to deal with these issues because there's a huge amount of uncertainty regarding the tax treatment of Bitcoin and crypto. You can have double taxation, as you said, you can mine the Bitcoin, get taxed on the mining event, and then get taxed again when you liquidate the asset. That can't be the right answer. >> No. And and ultimately all it does is it again drives the innovation to another space. Look, here's the reality right now. You got 50 states, four territories, 16 regulatory agencies, and you got some heavy hammers in the SEC. I would say some smarter hammers right now in the CFTC. What we don't want to do is make it harder for somebody to do business right here. The taxation piece, and I compliment Jason Smith, our ways and means chairman. We're moving in the right direction here. Let's keep the innovation here, but let's keep the policy up with where the innovation wants to go. So Mike, there's a really important work that the SEC and the CFDC are doing to tokenize our capital markets and the and the derivative markets. Um, and that's going to be the subject of a lot of scrutiny by the oversight agencies. Can you tell the audience what it is the financial services committee does when an agency uses the power it already has to make big changes to allow tokenization, allow crypto infrastructure to be brought into the traditional financial system? Can you sort of give a people a sense of that? >> You know, the financial services committee has oversight over most of these agencies uh that deal with our financial markets, our banking system traditionally. Uh but obviously from the regulatory standpoint, you know, we saw under Gary Gendler what he was trying to do with the SEC uh and you know during our time uh in overlap with Joe Biden's administration, we brought them in and we really came down on them hard over what they were doing uh at the SEC. And I know uh folks in the crypto and and uh blockchain uh space were ecstatic uh when the president uh President Trump said uh that Gary Gendler would be fired. Okay, we're going to fire Gary Gendler. and uh and he did obviously uh and so we've seen a regulatory uh body uh with uh you know, Chair Atkins and and the SEC now and working with uh the administration, working with Congress to really make sure number one, we're passing the legislation that needs to be passed and number two that the regulations that are being put in place by the SEC uh are in line with what we are trying to do uh from an innovation standpoint and from the standpoint of making the United States the crypto and digital assets capital of the world. And as a New Yorker uh you know New York City financial capital of the world. We we want digital assets. We want crypto uh you know to continue to be uh a based in New York. We want to see that grow. We want to see the industry grow. Uh you know Marionette talked about energy and and data centers that is key. Uh a lot of the financial institutions data centers are actually in my district because of the proximity to New York City. Uh and we know how important that is in this space. So there's a lot ahead but I think the the SEC is going to play a vital role. The FTC plays a vital role. But we want them working with Congress. We want them working with uh the administration. We don't want them to, you know, overstep their role and their authority. Uh, and frankly, some of the changes that they they do make, you know, we want to codify into law because we don't want this going back and forth at the whim of the next administration uh or at the whims of people like Elizabeth Warren. uh and we've seen you know what she has done uh with certain agencies uh you know uh consumer protection agencies and uh CFPB we don't want them uh to uh interfere with the ability to innovate and that's something that Congress is really trying why it is so important to get the legislation through so that it is codified and not up to uh the whims of the regulator bodies. >> You know, Congresswoman Miller Meeks, there's a lot of focus right now on the fin the financial services committee, the a committee because of the work that's being done legislatively on the work of the CFTC and the SEC. There's a lot of focus on the tax committee um ways and means because of the tax clarity we need. But the future of digital assets is ultimately going to be, I think, heavily in the jurisdiction of the commerce committee because we're going to be looking at tokenizing real world assets, tokenizing financial uh uh utility contracts, uh frequent flyer points. I mean, any number of sort of aspects of our economy will show up on chain. Can you talk about sort of your thoughts on that? >> Well, certainly uh the energy and commerce committee is very vast. So we have uh energy, environment, critical minerals, all of those things may be which involved in the whole supply chain if you will of uh digital assets and blockchain. Uh but then you also have the development of AI or uh national data privacy laws which we're looking at. So as we're going forward in that space much better than we were last year when um when the chair of energy and commerce was working very closely with the Senate Democrats. So what we're coming up with now I think is a much better policy and we also know and I think Zach has mentioned this you can't have 50 states and seven territories all having different laws. uh and so making sure that there is you know a regulatory structure in place that allows the innovation allows us to continue down this pathway and not lose out to bad actors I think is one of the important things that we're going to do in the that we're doing in the energy and commerce committee in addition to the energy component which this whole foundation doesn't exist if we don't have the energy to power it and China is vastly ahead of the United States in bringing power online uh and they're not waiting for us uh and we also know that they going to undermine what we're doing here in this country. So, some of the things that we deal with with our constituents is information that's actually propagandized and we saw that during COVID and we continue to see that now. >> Yeah. One of the things I've been very proud of is um we're very grateful for is the President Trump's extraordinary leadership on Bitcoin and crypto. I mean, unbelievable the degree to which he was stood up, understood that the future is in this direction. and he wanted the US not to fall behind for financial reasons, you know, uh personal reasons for uh folks who have been disenfranchised by the existing system, but also the national security case. Um and I've been particularly proud the number of Democrats who joined the Republicans in voting for crypto legislation. But elections have consequences. We've got a really sort of tight uh election coming up in 26. Um we're hopeful one by one we'll get more and more Democrats to understand the importance of this and a lot of them have stepped up including Congressman Horsworth that I mentioned who's been outstanding on these issues. But talk about how this community can help build kind of a resilient political uh support for Bitcoin and crypto. >> Well, I think that's it. The way you phrased it is really great. This shouldn't be a partisan issue. Um we should actually and we did see in both clarity and the genius act there were a lot of democrats on this issue with us but you know culture starts at the top and so what's the culture of your leadership in the political party and that then drives downward uh in who you appoint to committees whether it's CFTC whether it's SEC uh whether it's who's the chair of the Federal Reserve and so this should not be a political issue it shouldn't be a partisan issue but unfortunately it does have the um you know the influence of political parties which is unfortunate. I mean, President Trump has shown true leadership in this area, and part of it may be from his own personal experience in having federal government agencies weaponized against him. And so, he has this personal experience, and I think he sees part of himself in the um, you know, in what's happened to Bitcoin and how much they've had to struggle to get acknowledged in Washington DC. As they're trying to regulate themselves and keep bad actors out, they needed Washington's help. They're knocking on doors. They're there, but they were turned away. And a lot of that is not understanding what was going on, not understanding where the future was in this, you know, asset that was financial democracy and a little bit different than what everybody knew about. And so there's a lot of fear when it comes to try to, you know, hold something back that you don't really understand. So it took a lot of perseverance on your part. And I think that President Trump really sees part of himself in that. So, um, we know that right now, uh, you know, Mike Lawler is in a swing district in a very tough seat. Camala Harris won his district. Zack Nun and I are in the two hardest districts in Iowa. Iowa is a purple state. And so, there's a lot of money going into I think I've had five million spent against me already in the past year. Mike has had five or six. Zach, uh, three or four. So, we're already being attacked for our positions. And part of what's going on to undermine data centers and AI may in fact be driven by people who don't want us to be reelected in an area that we're very favorable and inclined to support. So shouldn't be partisan, but I do think it is unfortunately. And it's those who value freedom uh and those who want to have centralized government control. So, Congressman Nun, when a when a constituent who cares about Bitcoin or crypto comes and talks to you at a town hall or sends you a letter or calls your office, does it matter or does it not matter? And yeah, it's huge. We have hundreds of listening sessions every single year, let alone in all 21 counties. But let me say this, it's bigger than any of us. It's bigger than Republican or Democrat. One in five Americans holds some kind of digital asset. This is important to them. And when we look out and see, you know, $38 trillion in national debt, we can't cut ourselves out of that without saying we have to find new ways, one to hold government accountable certainly, but also to grow our economy. And what the digital asset space, particularly in Bitcoin, represents is a $10 trillion opportunity for us to start moving out not only for what we do here domestically, but what we do internationally as a leader. And so when I get, you know, a single mom who's saying, "I just got the biggest tax cut in American history. I can go ahead and I can buy a new water heater for my kids. I can get my kid into speech therapy, but what do I do with the remaining, you know, $1,000 or so? I can put that in a 401k maybe, or I can diversify my portfolio for something I can have here." this digital assets stable coinbacked by US dollars as well as Bitcoin all provide a real future opportunity for these individuals to be able to get in. So the federation of digital assets down to real American voters I think is huge and I will emphasize this that also comes with responsibility right and so decisions and elections have consequences. If you like what we've been able to do over the past year and a half and you say, "Hey, this is something that's really worked for me." And I think one out of five Americans would largely say, "Yes, absolutely." Then let's keep moving in that direction. But if you allow French Hill, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee to be replaced by somebody like Maxine Waters, candidly, we're going to go in a very different direction. And so so will your portfolio. The same is true for Elizabeth Warren and what's happening with Tim Scott. Look, you may not like everything about a party, but I I guarantee this. You like when you have a return that matters and when the limited amount of investment you're able to make actually helps your family, helps your future. Let's keep that going for the sake of all of us and our kids. We want to grow America's economy. This is a great place to make that investment. We collectively are leading in that direction. And so, we're just asking for the opportunity. This is what I would say to an Ian. Let's invest in your future both your pocketbook and in the ballot box. >> Great. Mike, final word. Well, stand with crypto has really been a great uh mobilization effort by the industry to get uh folks engaged uh not just in terms of growing awareness uh of digital assets and crypto but really mobilizing to engage with their elected leaders and to show that look, we want innovation. We want legislation to move. We want America to be a leading force. And so I think what you guys have been able to do over the last few years as an industry to really mobilize people across the country uh over 3 million people engaged on this issue from a grassroots advocacy standpoint has made a difference and the reason we have been able to get this legislation moving is precisely because of that advocacy. So, I would just say to your to your question, that's the best way to mobilize and it really does make an impact when the average American is reaching out and saying this issue matters. We want legislation to be passed to get stable coin legislation through, to get market structure through so that we have the rules of the road and that we uh have more security and stability in this uh great new uh marketplace and that's what we're really trying to do. And so I think it's been a great uh effort between the industry, the grassroots, and the elected officials in the Republican party uh majorities to really drive this uh through and and get the legislation across the finish line. >> All right. Fantastic. Mike Lawler of New York, Zach Nun of Iowa, Marionette Miller, Meeks of Iowa. You guys are amazing. We're all grateful for it. Thank you. Thank you. Every year, this community comes together to celebrate, to debate, to build what comes next. And every year, the stage gets bigger. Sound money, center stage. So, where do you go to celebrate the next chapter in Bitcoin history? You come home. Nashville, July 2027.