Stephen Diehl

Every Democrat Who Enabled Trump's Crypto Corruption

The Democratic Party will tell you, at considerable length and with great sincerity, that it stands for consumer protection, financial regulation, and democratic accountability. What it actually does is a separate matter. Then a sitting president launched his own memecoin, installed industry loyalists to gut the agencies meant to police fraud, and watched his family run a crypto empire that stood to profit directly from legislation moving through Congress. The party's response was to provide the decisive votes to make it legal. What follows is the complete record.

These are Democrats who looked at one of the most nakedly corrupt conflicts of interest in modern American political history and decided the industry money was worth it. The receipts are below, organized by bill.

H.R. 4763 "FIT21" (2024)

The Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act moved oversight of most crypto assets from the SEC to the CFTC, a smaller agency with fewer enforcement resources, less litigation budget, and a historically cozier relationship with the industries it regulates. The bill's name invokes the 21st century; its logic is closer to 19th century regulatory capture. The industry spent tens of millions lobbying for it. 71 House Democrats decided that was persuasive. 71 House Democrats voted Aye.

Roll Call 226, 118th Congress

H.J.Res. 109 SAB 121 Disapproval (2024)

This resolution overturned the SEC's Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, which required banks holding crypto assets to record them as liabilities on their balance sheets. It is a straightforward accounting rule: if you are holding an asset on behalf of a customer and that asset collapses, you should have noted that risk existed. The crypto industry found this inconvenient. So they lobbied to make the rule disappear, and 21 House Democrats helped them try. Biden vetoed it. The industry came back for a second attempt in the Senate. 21 House Democrats voted Yea.

Roll Call 189, 118th Congress

H.R. 5403 "CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act" (2024)

This bill prohibited the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency. The name "Anti-Surveillance State Act" is doing considerable rhetorical work for a piece of legislation whose primary beneficiaries are private stablecoin issuers who would very much like no public alternative to exist. The government surveilling you through a digital dollar is a theoretical future concern. Private crypto companies surveilling your transactions, extracting fees, and lobbying against any oversight is the present reality the bill carefully ignores. 3 House Democrats voted Aye.

Roll Call 228, 118th Congress

Senate: H.J.Res. 109 SAB 121 Disapproval (2024)

The same SAB 121 disapproval resolution, now in the Senate, where the industry had apparently been more persuasive. Eleven members of the Democratic caucus, including independent Kyrsten Sinema in what was perhaps her most on-brand vote of a storied career of on-brand votes, decided that banks should not have to acknowledge risk on their balance sheets when that risk involves crypto. Biden vetoed it again. 11 members of the Democratic caucus (including independent Kyrsten Sinema) voted Yea.

Roll Call Vote 169, 118th Congress

Senate: S. 1582 "GENIUS Act" (2025)

The GENIUS Act is Trump's stablecoin bill, designed to create a permissive federal framework for dollar-pegged stablecoins while Trump's own family operates World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that stands to profit directly from exactly this kind of legislation. In a functioning democracy, a president with a direct personal financial stake in pending legislation would recuse himself from the process. In this one, he signed the executive orders, installed the regulators, and let his allies shepherd the bill through Congress while his family counted the upside. The conflict of interest is not subtle. It is not even trying to be subtle. 16 Democratic senators looked at all of this and voted for cloture on the motion to proceed, providing the margin needed to advance the bill.

Roll Call Vote 262, 119th Congress

H.R. 1919 "Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act" (2025)

A reintroduction of the CBDC ban in the new Congress, this time prohibiting the Federal Reserve not only from issuing a digital dollar directly to individuals or using one as a monetary policy tool, but in some versions from even testing or studying the concept. This is a libertarian fever dream that somehow acquired a bill number: the government, prohibited by law from researching a technology so that private crypto interests face no public competition. The Overton window has moved considerably since the gold standard debates. Only 2 House Democrats voted Yea this time.

Roll Call 201, 119th Congress

The Good List

Democrats who voted against every crypto bill they had an opportunity to vote on. Senate members are evaluated on Senate votes; House members on House votes.

Senate

Democrats and Dem-caucus independents who voted Nay on every Senate crypto bill they had opportunity to vote on.

House

Democrats who voted Nay on FIT21 and did not vote Aye on any other crypto bill. Source: Roll Call 226, 118th Congress.

Aside: If your name is on the naughty list and you are reaching for your lawyer's phone right now. Let me save you the legal fees: truth and public interest are an absolute defense, the congressional record is a primary source, and I have already been through this (and you know who you are) with one who thought their title was a shield. And it was not. I am happy to reiterate your public voting record again in any venue you choose, including a courthouse, and I will enjoy every minute of it! I am still here, and my lawyers and I are significantly wealthier for the experience. Your call.