U.S. senators steal the show at Bitcoin 2024

U.S. Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis and Tim Scott took the stage at the Bitcoin 2024 conference today and straight up blamed the current Senate Banking Committee’s leadership for blocking American innovation, especially regarding Bitcoin.

Tim Scott said: 

“We have to get rid of the folks who are in the way.”

He was clearly pointing fingers at the Democratic majority, urging voters to kick them out in the November elections.

Pushing for crypto-friendly policies

Tim Scott is the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, and he is in line to be the next chairman if the Republicans take the Senate majority. 

At the conference, Scott said the government should ‘make it easy’ for the crypto industry to innovate in America.

Senator Tim Scott. Credits: AP

He criticized the current committee chair, Sherrod Brown, a known crypto skeptic. If the Republicans win the Senate, Scott says could lead the committee overseeing U.S. financial regulation.

Alongside Cynthia Lummis, he called out SEC Chair Gary Gensler as a roadblock for crypto policies. Scott said :

“Chairman Gensler, lord have mercy. Hit the road, Jack, and don’t you come back, no more, no more, no more.”

Before this, Scott had stayed away from the crypto debate, even as Democrats like Elizabeth Warren became vocal critics. 

During his time with Lummis, Scott repeatedly brought up his potential chairmanship and promised quick votes on pro-Bitcoin legislation, wanting to “set bitcoin free here at home.”

Cynthia Lummis’ Bitcoin push

Lummis has been advocating for a bill that would require the Federal Reserve to hold some Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. 

Although she didn’t get into this during her appearance, many attendees are hoping former Donald Trump, scheduled to speak the next day, would. Lummis said that:

“The innovations of Bitcoin are now becoming more clear in the U.S. Senate, and it’s also becoming more clear who wants to protect innovation and who wants to regulate it.”

Meanwhile, Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy, made a prediction at the conference. He predicted Bitcoin would hit $13 million per coin by 2045, upping his previous $10 million estimate from June. 

Michael Saylor, the Chairman of MicroStrategy [Getty Images] Saylor’s forecast was ambitious, suggesting a range from a $3 million bear case to a $49 million bull case. He urged the audience to become “triple maxi” Bitcoin bulls. 

“You financed the house for Bitcoin, you buy Bitcoin, you flip all your assets to Bitcoin, and then you move to a cheap tax jurisdiction where you actually can avoid some taxes and invest an extra fifty grand in Bitcoin,” Saylor explained.