Rep. Maxine Waters Drops Crypto Bombshell: ’I Told You So’ as US Bills Loom
Washington's crypto reckoning is here—and Maxine Waters isn't holding back. The veteran lawmaker's prophetic warnings about digital asset regulation are materializing as Congress prepares to vote on landmark bills this week.
Waters vs. The Wild West
The ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee has spent years pushing for stricter oversight of what she calls 'the casino economy.' Now, with bipartisan support building for comprehensive frameworks, her persistent advocacy appears vindicated.
Behind closed doors, lobbyists scramble to water down provisions targeting stablecoins and exchange oversight. Meanwhile, crypto PACs have dumped over $80 million into midterm campaigns—a transparent attempt to buy favorable legislation.
The Final Countdown
Key sticking points remain around DeFi protocols and custody rules. But insiders confirm the bills will likely pass with amendments, bringing US crypto regulation in line with global financial standards.
As the votes approach, Waters' signature phrase echoes through Capitol Hill corridors. For an industry that bet billions on avoiding accountability, the house always wins.
Wall Street and Big Tech
She also criticized the GENIUS Act’s provisions on stablecoins, calling the ability to properly regulate them weak and underfunded.
Unlike traditional banking, the bill lacks requirements for community reinvestment or oversight of third-party vendors, leaving users exposed to fraud and discrimination, she argued.
Waters raised further concerns about national security, noting the legislation’s exemptions for decentralized finance and its failure to ensure compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act.
“The bill also broadly exempts the decentralized finance industry from nearly all oversight, a category that Trump’s World Liberty Financial notably claims to fall under,” she wrote.
She warned the GENIUS Act could allow foreign-controlled crypto firms to gain easier access to U.S. markets, creating additional risks.
Waters also framed the bills as giveaways to Wall Street and Big Tech, undercutting claims that crypto democratizes finance. “They give megabanks and Big Crypto the green light to consolidate control,” she said.
Sean Lee, co-founder of the International Digital Asset Exchange Association, told Decrypt the U.S.’s decisions over crypto regulation carry weight far beyond its borders.
“The U.S. is the largest and the most innovative market in the digital asset space. Having a regulatory framework in place, especially for these two very important asset classes, is critically important to setting an example for the rest of the world,” he said.
“But it is by no means perfect, and there needs to be an evolution in terms of monitoring how the market behaves and also ensuring that it is not a one-size-fits-all.”
