Cynthia Lummis, an American senator pro-crypto, has stood firm in her support of Bitcoin (BTC), despite being urged by her Senate peers to the contrary.
As it stands, Lummis seems to be just one of the few openly crypto-friendly politicians in the United States and has notably pushed for progressive crypto regulation alongside Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
Talking with Semafor, an online news outlet on Dec. 12, Lummis outlined that crypto winter has not shaken her resolve in BTC and that she’d still like to see the asset included in United States 401(k) retirement plans:
“I’m very comfortable with making sure that people can include Bitcoin in their retirement funds because it’s just different than other cryptocurrencies.”
“I personally believe that because there are only going to be 21 million Bitcoin that are mined, that Bitcoin will go up,” Lummis said, adding that it’s “a personal belief, just based on its scarcity.”
But the “jury’s still out on other cryptocurrencies,” the senator said.
These comments are slightly different from Lummis’ original statements about retirement plans back June 2021.
She had at the time backed inclusion of certain cryptos. However, crypto winter and the recent FTX scandal may have changed her mind.
“I’d also like to see individuals be able to use Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies of their preference that are safe, that have met the hurdles of anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act,” Lummis said.
Related: The news that Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested has sparked a firestorm of crypto Twitter
On Capitol Hill, Senators Tina Smith (Senator Elizabeth Warren), Richard Durbin (Senator) and Tina Smith (Senator) have instead used the market turmoil to reaffirm their calls for Fidelity Investments, which is linked to BTC, to end its 401(k).
In a Nov. 21 letter addressed to Fidelity’s CEO Abigail Johnson, the three senators highlighted the FTX debacle as a major reason to step away from offering BTC exposure in retirement plans.
“As with all financial products, price fluctuations are an expected feature of the market — and it is shortsighted to believe that setbacks in an industry are an indication that it won’t experience long-term growth,” said Jonah Allon, a press secretary for Adams.
Other senators have been piling in on crypto of late, with Jon Tester stating earlier this week that he sees “no reason why” crypto should exist at all and Warren enthusiastically stating that “finally there are more people blowing the bullshit whistle.”