Charles Hoskinson Blames TRUMP Token for Crypto’s 70-Vote Senate Loss and Bitcoin-Only Crisis
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson just dropped a political bombshell—claiming a single memecoin derailed crypto's entire Washington agenda.
The Alleged 70-Vote Blunder
Hoskinson argues the controversial TRUMP token didn't just generate speculative hype—it actively cost the industry a crucial Senate victory. His claim? The token's polarizing nature flipped what should have been a 70-vote pro-crypto majority into a legislative defeat, handing ammunition to skeptics who view the entire sector as a politically-charged circus.
Sparking the 'Bitcoin-Only' Backlash
The fallout, according to Hoskinson, was immediate and severe. The TRUMP token drama allegedly fueled the rise of a toxic 'Bitcoin-only' narrative within crypto, fracturing community unity and pushing a maximalist agenda that sidelines innovation in smart contracts and decentralized applications. It turned allies into purists overnight.
Politics Meets Portfolio—A Dangerous Mix
Hoskinson's critique highlights a recurring Wall Street nightmare: when asset performance gets tied to political theater, traditional investors head for the exits. The episode serves as a stark reminder that in crypto, the most volatile token might just be the one named after a politician—because nothing tanks a portfolio faster than combining market risk with electoral drama.
Votes and the timeline
There is no public whip count showing 70 locked-in Senate votes for CLARITY in December 2024. The record shows that congressional committees have advanced bills with bipartisan votes, but Democrats are increasingly split between centrists and progressives.
Stories about World Liberty and TRUMP hardened opposition among Democrats who might otherwise have been persuadable. At least one major hearing was canceled due to those Trump-linked projects, Waters said in her statement.
There was a bipartisan lane for crypto, but it was fragile and contingent on the WHITE House not turning regulation into a vehicle for presidential enrichment.
TRUMP exposed a conflict-of-interest problem that many Democrats were already nervous about, rather than creating partisan opposition from scratch.
Even after the TRUMP backlash, Congress still managed to pass GENIUS and MOVE CLARITY out of the House, which suggests the memecoin didn't kill legislation outright.
Bitcoin-only rally was already baked in
Hoskinson also tied the Bitcoin-only rally and lagging alts to “government interference” and the memecoin saga. The market data points to different drivers.
Several independent 2025 reports hit the same themes. An institutional and retail flow shock into spot Bitcoin ETFs, with research showing that new ETF buyers overwhelmingly concentrated on BTC, a pattern that “shifted capital away from the broader altcoin market.”
A maturing, more cautious market, with CoinGlass and other derivatives shops flagging “persistent weakness in ETH and the broader altcoin market” tied to reduced risk appetite, tougher competition, and lack of new killer apps, not just politics.
Bitcoin dominance ground higher through mid-2025, with market commentary repeatedly noting BTC's share of the total crypto market cap in the mid-60s to 70%, while altcoins lagged even during upswings.
One June analysis explicitly tied that to ETF-driven demand being “treated similarly to gold,” with dips bought and pumps sustained, while altcoin liquidity stayed thin.
Zooming into coins like XRP or SOL shows a story driven by product and regulatory plumbing: ETF approvals and pauses, uncertainty around which assets the SEC will tolerate in exchange-traded wrappers, and uneven institutional custody support.
When the SEC green-lit and then paused a Bitwise altcoin index ETF conversion, XRP and other majors suffered whipsaws due to regulatory uncertainty, not TRUMP drama.
Trump's memecoin and World Liberty scandals added headline risk and made some institutions more cautious about crypto exposure, while ethics questions were unresolved.
However, the primary reasons this cycle looks like “Bitcoin first, maybe alts later” are structural. ETFs and treasuries made BTC the cleanest institutional trade. Regulation is clearer for BTC and, to a lesser extent, ETH than for most altcoins. Risk appetite and innovation are thinner outside a handful of L1 ecosystems.
None of that required TRUMP to exist.
Yet, Hoskinson is right on the optics. Launching a presidential memecoin before a major regulatory bill was always going to complicate the politics.
Waters' May statement makes that concrete: she couldn't negotiate market structure while the president was monetizing his office through the same instruments they were trying to regulate.
However, the broader causal claims run into the data. No 70-vote Senate coalition was documented in December 2024. There was a fragile bipartisan opening that Trump's crypto empire, consisting of World Liberty first, then TRUMP, made politically harder for Democrats who feared endorsing self-dealing.
