Many assume conservative principles belong to the past. They don’t. The debate over cryptocurrency regulation — including the House GOP’s Clarity Act — offers a chance to apply those principles to a 21st-century frontier.

Cryptocurrency and decentralized finance reflect core American values: free speech, free markets, and innovation from the ground up. Across the country, developers are building protocols that move money in microseconds, create new investment tools, and expand access to capital like never before.

With a Republican-led Congress considering landmark cryptocurrency legislation, we have a historic opportunity to apply time-tested conservative values to the cutting edge of financial innovation.

Blockchain technology provides a means to secure property rights in the digital era. The most transformative products likely haven’t even launched yet.

The potential benefits are massive. In 2024 alone, decentralized finance grew to more than $114 billion. Even more capital — billions of dollars — stands ready to enter the space through pension funds and institutional investors.

But that money won’t move without guardrails.

Institutional investors need transparency. That means audit requirements they can trust, legally accountable custodians, clear reporting on asset health, and safeguards against manipulation.

They also need legal certainty. Defined rules give investors confidence. Without them, they’ll stay away — or invest elsewhere.

That’s where Washington plays a role.

The Trump administration shifted U.S. regulatory policy toward digital assets, elevating crypto to a national priority through executive order. Now, with a Republican-led Congress weighing landmark crypto legislation, conservatives have a real opportunity.

This moment demands more than slogans. It calls for applying time-tested conservative principles — rule of law, market discipline, and individual liberty — to the future of finance.

Don’t be afraid

Some treat cryptocurrency as a threat. Fair enough — the collapse of FTX still casts a long shadow over the current debate in Congress.

Sam Bankman-Fried, a Democratic megadonor, didn’t just run a failed company. He ran a cautionary tale — a playbook for what lawmakers must never allow again.

The FTX scandal highlights two enduring conservative truths:

Human nature is flawed. Left unchecked, individuals will act out of greed and self-interest. Conservatives have never pretended otherwise — and that’s why we build systems of accountability.
The rule of law matters. Pre-established standards prevent chaos. Waiting for disaster or making policy on the fly only magnifies the damage.

FTX didn’t collapse because of cryptocurrency. It failed because no one held Bankman-Fried accountable. He amassed influence through backroom politics and ran a tangled network of private firms without meaningful oversight. The result: billions vaporized and public trust shattered.

Thoughtful legislation can prevent the next meltdown — not by stifling innovation, but by setting clear, enforceable rules rooted in transparency, responsibility, and the rule of law.

A remedy with room to improve

The bill now before Congress offers a rare chance to get crypto regulation right.

It tackles the custodial vulnerabilities exposed by the FTX collapse and establishes a framework that allows digital asset projects to integrate into the broader financial system. Just as important, it does so under a unified set of rules.

The bill follows conservative logic. It exempts infrastructure providers — such as blockchain validators and payment processors — from regulatory burdens that don’t apply. These actors don’t make governance decisions, and the law should reflect that.

It also classifies participants based on their actions, rather than the extent of their political influence.

But the bill still needs one critical fix.

Lawmakers need to include decentralized autonomous organizations as eligible cryptocurrency issuers. These DAOs, the opposite of central banks, operate through user-led governance. Crypto users vote on the rules of the system they help create.

DAOs have become common in decentralized finance. Yet the current bill overlooks them. That omission could block the very groups driving innovation from entering the regulated space.

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

If a project follows the rules, discloses information, and acts responsibly, it should qualify, regardless of how it governs itself. Whether the issuer is a DAO, a startup, or a traditional bank, one standard should apply.

That’s the conservative way: equal rules, fair enforcement, and space for innovation to thrive.

What if we get it wrong?

Leaving the bill unamended carries real risks:

Overreaching compliance rules could smother the best of American innovation — now and in the future.
Narrow legal definitions might force decentralized finance into the hands of a few massive exchanges, recreating the same “too big to fail” system that burned taxpayers in 2008.
Ongoing regulatory ambiguity could drive developers and infrastructure providers offshore, into the arms of authoritarian regimes eager to benefit from America’s hesitation.

The biggest danger? Watching capital and talent flee to countries that welcome decentralized commerce while the United States — its origin point — falls behind.

Decentralized finance leaders aren’t calling for lawlessness. They want smart policy.

Joe Sticco, co-founder of Cryptex and a White House Crypto Summit participant, put it this way: “In DeFi, it’s not about evading rules — it’s about building better ones.”

Sticco believes today’s innovators want a seat at the table. “We believe open financial systems can coexist with responsible oversight,” he told me. “We have to show up, we have to explain the tech, and we have to help shape the rules.”

Congress still has time to get this right. But the window is closing.

The path forward

Republicans now hold both chambers of Congress. That means the window to act is wide open.

This isn’t about growing government. It’s about setting the rules so innovation can thrive, fraud gets stopped, and people are held accountable. Here's what that looks like:

Clear rules that apply fairly to both traditional companies and decentralized projects;
Basic protections like audits, secure custody of funds, and anti-fraud measures;
Freedom for developers to build new tools without unfair roadblocks;
And clear standards for when crypto projects are considered stable enough to ease up on oversight.

With these fixes, the Clarity Act can do what no other crypto bill has: protect investors, promote innovation, and keep America in the lead.

We can build the future of finance right here — on American terms, with American values. But we have to act now.

Why are Republicans helping Dick Durbin gut Trump’s crypto bill?

Fifteen years ago, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) slipped an amendment into law that handed a $90 billion windfall to mega-retailers like Walmart and Target — while forcing everyday Americans to foot the bill.

Now he’s trying to do it again. This time, he’s recruited Republican help.

President Trump has made his priorities clear. He wants America to dominate in financial tech — not hand the future to China.

As a former chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises — and as a proud Trump ally — I’m alarmed that Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) has teamed up with Durbin to hijack one of the most important bills of the year: the Genius Act.

This legislation, backed by President Trump, would establish the first federal framework for stablecoins — digital dollars backed by U.S. currency and issued by trusted financial institutions. It’s the cornerstone of America’s entry into 21st-century digital payments and a key to ensuring that we — not China — lead the future of global finance.

President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have made the bill a top priority. “We’re optimistic that the Senate is able to move quickly on passing a clean Genius Act and for the House to follow up and do the same,” Vance told attendees at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference in Nashville.

But that momentum will vanish if Marshall and Durbin succeed in attaching their so-called Credit Card Competition Act. This isn’t reform — it’s the Durbin Amendment 2.0, and we’ve already seen how that story ends.

In 2010, despite widespread opposition, Durbin passed his original amendment, shifting the cost of payment processing from big-box retailers onto credit card companies. He promised that consumers would benefit when retailers passed along those savings.

They didn’t.

A Federal Reserve-backed study later found that only 1% of merchants passed savings on to customers. Meanwhile, 22% raised prices. Card companies — forced to absorb the new costs — cut back on free checking accounts and slashed debit card rewards programs. The number of cardholders earning rewards dropped 30%.

Main Street lost. Big box stores cashed in. Even the left-leaning Progressive Policy Institute now admits the amendment failed and has urged Congress to “rethink” the policy.

The Credit Card Competition Act would repeat the mistake, but with credit cards. It would force every credit card to operate on at least two payment networks, letting mega-retailers route transactions through the cheapest — and often least secure — option. They’d pocket the savings. Consumers wouldn’t see a dime.

Photo by IAN MAULE/AFP via Getty Images

Under the current system, consumers choose the networks by picking the cards they want to carry. Merchants choose which cards to accept. That’s the free market. The CCCA would dismantle that system and take away the rewards — cash back, airline miles, travel perks — that millions of Americans rely on.

Amazon, Walmart, and Target would benefit. Rural consumers, community banks, and small businesses would lose.

If this poison-pill amendment gets attached to the Genius Act, the bill’s broad bipartisan support will vanish. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has already warned he’ll withdraw support if Durbin 2.0 gets jammed into the final package.

Congress must not let backroom deals or crony carve-outs derail this legislation. The Genius Act should be an easy win for consumers, tech innovation, and U.S. leadership in digital finance.

President Trump has made his priorities clear. He wants America to dominate in financial technology — not hand the future to China. His administration supports clear, commonsense rules that unlock innovation, protect consumers, and safeguard the dollar’s global status.

The Genius Act achieves all of that — if lawmakers pass it clean.

Republicans can’t claim to support Trump’s economic agenda while carrying water for woke corporations and their favorite Democrat senator. They need to decide: Stand with Main Street or sell out to K Street. Back American innovation or stick with the same tired crony playbook.

The country doesn’t need another Durbin amendment. It needs leadership.

Trump’s SEC pick would blow up Biden’s lawless financial agenda

The media’s narrative has done its job. Many Americans now see Donald J. Trump not as a reformer but as a symbol of corruption. That perception is both dishonest and deeply misleading.

The reality? The first 100 days of Trump’s second term leave no doubt about his goal: to reform and remake the federal government.

Reform should mean growing the economy, not growing the bureaucracy.

It’s about time. Too many unelected bureaucrats accountable to no one infest the federal government like roaches, wielding unchecked power over our lives, liberty, and happiness. They treat the mandate for reform as a nuisance. Their mission: obstruct Trump’s appointees and protect the status quo.

Organizations like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Voice of America have deservedly drawn the president’s attention. But many others deserve the same scrutiny. One that stands out is the Securities and Exchange Commission, which repeatedly overstepped its authority during the Biden years, using vague regulatory powers to impose sweeping social mandates under the guise of financial oversight.

Trump tapped former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to fix it. As chairman, Atkins can be counted on to take a best-practices approach to administrative responsibilities and to ensure that the SEC conducts its mission as described by the law: “facilitate capital formation; maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and protect investors.”

That’s a welcome clarification of responsibility. Gary Gensler, who ran the SEC for Joe Biden, was often accused of having a reach that exceeded legitimate bounds, as when, for example, he tried to regulate the market for precious metals.

Gold and silver are not securities. Neither are individual retirement accounts. Yet the Gensler-era SEC attempted to assert authority over companies offering precious-metals IRAs to individuals and families who wish to own gold and silver.

As the Heritage Foundation’s David Burton told the House Financial Services Committee in March 2024, “The commission is statutorily required to promote efficiency, competition, and capital formation by responsible participants in the capital markets.” Still, under the Biden administration, “it increasingly does the opposite.”

John Gulliver of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation told the same committee that Gensler’s SEC had “an unprecedented rulemaking agenda that will radically redesign the regulation of our securities markets and will have a major impact on the cost of being a public company and investing in our markets.”

Photo by Tom Brenner for the Washington Post via Getty Images

Atkins can and must guide the SEC away from such nonsense. As CEO of Patomak Global Partners, Atkins oversaw the development of best practices for managing digital assets. Congress should follow his lead wherever it may go, solidifying his reforms into law and preventing the agency from trying to regulate financial instruments that are not securities.

The overreach matters. The United States is in a race with China for cryptocurrency dominance. The winner gets to establish the terms under which everyone else must live. It’s no surprise that the SEC’s failure to establish what Burton called “basic rules for responsible actors to follow” undermines America’s ability to take the lead.

“I am not entirely sure whether this irresponsible failure to provide basic rules is a function of the limited understanding of those charged with regulating in this area or their desire to simply have no rules so that the commission can engage in regulation by enforcement,” Burton told the committee.

Regulation by enforcement doesn’t just stifle innovation — it cripples the economy. It may also violate new limits the U.S. Supreme Court just imposed on federal agencies in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which ended the Chevron deference doctrine.

But Atkins can’t fix the SEC alone. Congress must step in and rewrite the law to bar the commission from using backdoor tactics to seize authority over emerging markets and financial technologies.

If lawmakers fail, they’ll guarantee a future where financial technology innovation gets strangled in red tape while real fraudsters skate by untouched. That’s bad news not just for entrepreneurs, but for America’s investors — roughly half the population — who rely on strong markets to secure their retirements.

Reform should mean growing the economy, not growing the bureaucracy. With Atkins at the helm, the SEC finally has a chance to get back to doing what it was meant to do.

Federal Reserve revokes guidance requiring banks to gain preapproval on cryptocurrency activity

The Federal Reserve has rescinded its guidance for banks related to handling cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

In a recent press release, the Federal Reserve Board said it was removing guidance that forced banks to seek special permission before dealing with digital assets.

According to the release, a 2022 supervisory letter established an expectation that banks would provide advance notification of planned cryptocurrency activities, while updating the Reserve of ongoing ventures.

The justification for the requirements included market instability, money-laundering concerns, and consumer protection.

"Certain types of crypto-assets, such as stablecoins, if adopted at large scale, could also pose risks to financial stability," the expunged letter read.

However, the board now says it will no longer expect banks to provide notification and will instead "monitor banks' crypto-asset activities through the normal supervisory process," the press release explained.

The 2023 letter, since withdrawn, required banks to demonstrate, "to the satisfaction of Federal Reserve supervisors," that the bank had controls in place in order to conduct safe transactions surrounding cryptocurrencies. This was called a "supervisory nonobjection" where banks did not get to engage in an activity and then have it scrutinized, but rather they needed to submit their "proposed activities" to the Federal Reserve in order to move forward.

This was not a form of an approval process either, though, but rather a "nonobjection."

Taking off more reins

The Federal Reserve board also said it would be working with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to determine if additional guidance to support innovation with crypto-asset activities is needed.

According to Crowdfund Insider, the OCC announced in March that it would be making its own changes to its Comptroller's Handbook booklets and guidance. On change from the federal agency, which works within the Treasury Department, was that it would no longer examine institutions for "reputation risk."

"The OCC’s examination process has always been rooted in ensuring appropriate risk management processes for bank activities, not casting judgment on how a particular activity may fare with public opinion," said Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney E. Hood.

"The OCC has never used reputation risk as a catch-all justification for supervisory action. Focusing future examination activities on more transparent risk areas improves public confidence in the OCC's supervisory process and makes clear that the OCC has not and does not make business decisions for banks."

President Trump recently signed an executive order aimed at establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve, which at the same time forbids the acquisition of other digital assets except through forfeiture proceedings.

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Trump’s Bitcoin masterstroke puts America ahead in digital assets

With a single stroke of his Sharpie, President Donald Trump instantly made the United States into the world leader in digital assets, ensuring its dominance in the sector for the foreseeable future.The new Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile are a triple win for the American people.

Win No. 1: No cost to taxpayers

The reserve comes at no expense to taxpayers. Every asset within it was already owned by the federal government, including 200,000 Bitcoin — an amount that crypto czar David Sacks recently estimated to be worth about $17.5 billion. Moreover, the executive order establishing the reserve explicitly binds the government to “budget-neutral” strategies for acquiring additional Bitcoin and forbids the acquisition of other digital assets except through forfeiture proceedings.

The United States is poised to be the world leader in digital assets for many years to come.

In other words, the crypto reserve will be funded entirely by criminals and scammers like the ones who allegedly bilked several Massachusetts residents out of their savings through a fraudulent trading platform.

Win No. 2: Boosting domestic innovation

The crypto reserve will foster domestic innovation in an industry poised to be a major driver of economic growth well into the future. American digital assets companies, like Avalanche, already play a crucial role in this ecosystem, delivering high-paying jobs and contributing to the president’s broader economic agenda.

The crypto industry’s domestic investments will reinforce the principles of putting America first, creating American jobs, and driving economic growth that are at the heart of Trump’s plan to Make America Great Again.

Win No. 3: A global statement

By publicly staking America’s claim in digital assets, Trump and his crypto team led by crypto czar David Sacks and Bo Hines, executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, are sending a strong signal to the global crypto community: America is open for business. For an industry that has faced widespread skepticism and even open hostility from establishment forces all over the world, this invitation will be enthusiastically embraced.

Instead of building data centers and other crypto infrastructure overseas, tech companies will invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. economy, creating new jobs and broadening our tax base.

The crypto industry has come a long way since a young programmer completed the first commercial Bitcoin transaction — exchanging 10,000 BTC for two Papa John’s pizzas. Today, those Bitcoins are worth just under $1 billion — an increase of roughly two billion percent in just 15 years.

Bitcoin’s value will soar

With Bitcoin’s circulation now capped, its value is projected to continue appreciating. Unlike the U.S. dollar, which inflationary policies can devalue, no entity can create additional BTC. Other digital assets have similar built-in safeguards, ensuring that they cannot be manipulated like fiat currencies.

In many ways, cryptocurrencies and other digital assets resemble gold, real estate, and other assets that serve as a stable, long-term store of value.

Sadly, this fact has not been appreciated by those in power until now.

“At one point in time, we had about 400,000 bitcoin on the federal balance sheet. We sold roughly half of that for something like $360 million total,” Sacks disclosed recently on an episode of the "All-In Podcast."

Although the premature sales cost American taxpayers around $17 billion at today’s prices, they serve to reinforce the benefits of creating a strategic reserve of these unique assets.

Throughout recorded history, governments worldwide have recognized the necessity of maintaining strategic gold reserves. These reserves can strengthen the domestic economy or provide strategic flexibility in international relations. The new crypto reserve will likely serve a similar function in the future.

As usual, Trump is several steps ahead of the political establishment. Thanks to his visionary leadership, the United States is poised to be the world leader in digital assets for many years to come.

Is Trump's 'strategic Bitcoin reserve' a good idea? Crypto expert explains

President Donald Trump is making good on his campaign promise to turn the United States into the crypto capital of the planet by going all in on cryptocurrency in his second term.

Crypto expert and Ten31 managing partner Marty Bent is thrilled with Trump’s move — particularly with the strategic Bitcoin reserve.

“I think one thing that I’m looking forward to is that getting enshrined into law. Right now, we have the executive order, and as we’ve seen with executive orders from administration to administration, they can be rendered moot if the other side of the aisle gets into office in 2028,” Bent tells Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson of “Blaze News Tonight.”

“So enshrining the strategic Bitcoin reserve into law is my number one priority,” he continues. “And I think the way it’s laid out in the Lummis bill is great for two reasons.”

One of those reasons, Bent says, is that Bitcoin is described in the bill as “an asset worth holding and we’re going to try to accumulate as much as possible in an attempt to defease the national debt.”

“And just as importantly, but not really talked about as much, is the right to self-custody,” he says.

“So I think those two things, accumulating Bitcoin with the intent of defeasing the national debt, which has gotten out of control, and enshrining the rights of individuals to hold and send Bitcoin without having to use a centralized third party, would be massive for the country,” he adds.

However, under the Biden administration, Bent explains that “there were worries that laws were going to be passed that would make it so you would have to use a centralized third party to access Bitcoin.”

Which makes it more important that the Trump administration focuses on enshrining the right to self custody into law.

“That would be incredible,” he says.

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Conservatives can lead the charge on clean crypto rules

Don’t be afraid

A remedy with room to improve

What if we get it wrong?

The path forward

Why are Republicans helping Dick Durbin gut Trump’s crypto bill?

Trump’s SEC pick would blow up Biden’s lawless financial agenda

Federal Reserve revokes guidance requiring banks to gain preapproval on cryptocurrency activity

Taking off more reins

Trump’s Bitcoin masterstroke puts America ahead in digital assets

Win No. 1: No cost to taxpayers

Win No. 2: Boosting domestic innovation

Win No. 3: A global statement

Bitcoin’s value will soar

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Trump Overhauls Eco Permitting to Fast Track New Roads, Bridges

Don’t be afraid

A remedy with room to improve

What if we get it wrong?

The path forward

Taking off more reins

Win No. 1: No cost to taxpayers

Win No. 2: Boosting domestic innovation

Win No. 3: A global statement

Bitcoin’s value will soar

Want more from 'Blaze News Tonight'?

We’ll keep you informed with top stories for conservatives who want to become informed decision makers.