During a House Financial Services Committee hearing Tuesday, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) spoke about President Trump's cryptocurrency and crypto policy.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For years, I and my colleagues have sought to craft
00:06common-sense crypto legislation with great rails for consumers and
00:11strong oversight. In less than two months, President Trump and Elon Musk have
00:17undermined all of this work. In fact, since taking office, Trump has only
00:22enriched himself, his crypto cabinet, and the rest of the crypto billionaire class.
00:28And he has done nothing to improve the economy, let alone anything to bring down
00:34the cost of groceries, energy, or housing, as he promised. In fact, under Trump, egg
00:40prices are up 53 percent. And just yesterday, the S&P 500 fell a blistering
00:492.7 percent. Trump started with the Mimi Cohen scheme that scammed investors out
00:57of $2 billion, while Trump, his family, and other insiders pocketed $350 million.
01:05And just last week, Trump signed an executive order to spend U.S. taxpayer
01:11resources to create a fund of billions of dollars of crypto that would squarely
01:18enrich Trump, Musk, and MAGA cronies already holding these cryptocurrencies.
01:26Mr. Chairman, despite my belief that the Trump administration only wants crypto
01:31legislation that personally benefits them and protects their crypto financers,
01:37I still hope we can work together on a bill that requires stable coins be
01:43robustly and fairly regulated. Unfortunately, the bill noticed, but this
01:49hearing strips away critical protections to shield investors from criminals.
01:55The bill also tears down the wall that was used to separate banking from
02:02commerce, allowing big tech firms, including those owned by Elon Musk, to
02:09issue their own money, just like Facebook tried to do with Libra. I'm proud of how
02:15this committee stopped Libra and Facebook, and I will do everything that I
02:20can to stop Musk also. It is also clear they've given Trump's and Musk's
02:26actions on crypto and the mass layoffs of the employees who would be charged
02:32with overseeing crypto. We must go back to the drawing board on stable coins. The
02:38best starting point for moving forward is the Waters-McHenry bill, which I
02:43released a few weeks ago. Before I close, I'm so deeply concerned that we are
02:49considering a bill today to strip the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of
02:56supervision of big tech payment apps. This comes after Trump's appointees
03:02halted all Consumer Financial Protection Bureau supervision of big banks. Moreover,
03:09the Republican resistance to even allow the Fed to study central bank digital
03:16currencies is not only anti-innovation, but it is anti-American, as it helps
03:23China win the digital currency space race and undermines the US dollar as the
03:29world's reserve of currency. Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to work with you and this
03:34committee, and we need to go back again to the drawing board on stable coins and
03:39get started so we can really get into crypto, and I just believe that your
03:44leadership will take us there. I just cannot believe that this committee
03:50would follow what Trump is doing for himself and the other billionaire cronies
03:55of his. I yield back the balance of my time.