Incoming Pro-crypto Senator Bernie Moreno Tapped For Senate Banking Committee

Incoming Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) will serve on the Senate Banking Committee when he takes office next year, a recent press release from upcoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) shows.

Bernie Moreno On Senate Banking Committee, John Thune Press Release Shows

According to Thune’s press release, Moreno is slated to serve on the Senate Banking Committee, the Senate Budget Committee, the Senate Commerce Committee, and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Other key U.S. lawmakers set to serve alongside Moreno on the Senate Banking Committee include bitcoin-friendly Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), crypto-friendly Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and pro-crypto Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA).

With the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) overseeing the Senate Banking Committee, Moreno’s addition may increase the committee’s overall crypto-friendliness.

Moreno, who will begin his term on January 3, defeated Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown earlier this year by 200,000 votes.

The Senator-Elect, who previously worked as a car dealer, won the crucial backing of Now-President-Elect Donald Trump, who even thanked him in his victory speech for the Ohio Senate Primary in March of this past year.

“I want to thank President Trump for all he did for me, for this campaign, for his unwavering support, for his love of this country,” Moreno said.

How Donald Trump Will Impact Crypto

Trump, who most recently launched his family’s crypto platform World Liberty Financial, has a longstanding record of backing the blockchain sector despite stating that cryptocurrencies’ value was “based on thin air” in 2019.

I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2019

“Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity,” he said in a July 11 X post that year.

However, the former reality television star largely campaigned pro-crypto, pledging to enact crypto-friendly regulations when he returns to the Oval Office.

“We will have regulations,” Trump stated at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference this past summer, adding, “but from now on, the rules will be written by the people who love your industry, not hate your industry.

The New York-born businessman has since tapped former SEC commissioner Paul Atkins to replace outgoing SEC chair Gary Gensler following years of his regulation-by-enforcement approach to digital assets.

With Moreno now helping to oversee the federal regulator, crypto may be in friendlier territory than ever.