In a recent development, Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act has been gaining traction, despite a track record that suggests it may not pass into law.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has only had 11 of her 330 sponsored bills enacted into law during her 11-year tenure. Data from GovTrack reveals that most of these bills were absorbed into other legislations. Only one, the National POW/MIA Flag Act, was enacted independently.
Warren’s newest piece of legislation, the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, reintroduced in July, seeks to fortify the nation’s money laundering laws by encompassing various crypto applications and firms within the Bank Secrecy Act’s regulatory framework. While the bill has bipartisan support, its detractors argue that it could potentially strangle the burgeoning crypto industry in the United States.
Alex Thorn, the head of firmwide research at Galaxy Research, voiced his criticism on X (formerly Twitter), on December 11. He declared the bill as “an effective ban” on Bitcoin and crypto. Thorn contends that the bill extends Know Your Customer requirements to decentralized software, which, in his view, “cannot plausibly perform centralized compliance functions.”
Despite the backlash, an additional five senators from Warren’s Democratic Party agreed to co-sponsor the bill on December 11. This suggests that the contentious legislation may still be in with a shot..