With Bitcoin just shy of US $30,000 each as this episode goes to publication, the tea leaves suggest Senators Warren and Brown may try to use Bitcoin — and the broader crypto community — as their punching bag. Yet crypto has been around for 14 years. Something like 20 percent of Americans now hold or own some of the major cryptos. Crypto didn’t break the banking system; unjustified rate hikes from the Fed did. Interest rate hikes put undue stress on banks’ balance sheets, at a time when they are already structurally weak from underperforming commercial real estate holdings. Especially as Europe and Saudi Arabia are turning away from the dollar — and as Asia is getting back into the crypto game (Hong Kong’s decision, etc.) — it would unduly cripple American investors and users to shut them out of this still developing, although admittedly volatile, asset class. The Senators should turn away from the self-interested lobbyists whispering in their ears and instead do what is right for American consumers, investors, and companies. Brown, Warren, and others have an obligation to do what is right for all stakeholders in our financial system, not merely for politicized bag holders of the central bank. —FULCRUM Research