Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) listens during a panel titled “Making the World’s Greatest Economy Work for All Americans” at the America First Policy Institute’s America First Agenda Summit in Washington, July 26, 2022.
Sarah Silbiger | Reuters
The crypto industry is mourning the loss of one of its most ardent defenders on Capitol Hill, after Sen. Cynthia Lummis announced on Friday that she would not seek re-election.
Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, said last week that the “difficult and exhausting” final weeks of this year’s legislative session led him to decline his bid for re-election. “I have come to accept that I don’t have six more years left,” he said.
Lummis is the chair of the Senate Banking Committee’s Crypto Subcommittee and a staunch ally of the industry, helping to pass the Genius Act, the first bill to regulate stablecoins, in July. She is currently negotiating legislation as part of her support for the industry for widespread regulation of cryptocurrencies.
The crypto industry mourns her retirement, and a primary election will be held for her seat in ruby-colored Wyoming in 2026.
“Senator Lummis has been a great collaborator on cryptocurrencies, and we will miss her so much!” White House AI and Cryptocurrency Czar David Sachs said in a post on X.
Connor Brown, director of strategy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, called Lummis “the first and greatest Bitcoiner in the Senate.”
“We were incredibly fortunate to have had her leadership during so many key moments in Bitcoin policy over these critical years,” Brown said.
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and coinbase Kara Calvert, vice president for U.S. policy, said Lummis “was instrumental in bringing digital assets from the fringes of policy discussions to the floor of the U.S. Senate.”
“I can’t think of a better way to end her legacy than by passing the landmark market structure bill that she worked so hard to advance,” Calvert said.
Mr. Lummis was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 and served as a member until 2016. She was elected to the Senate in 2020, becoming Wyoming’s first female senator.
Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman is Wyoming’s only member of Congress. People familiar with her thinking told NBC News that she is likely to run for Lummis’ seat.
Whoever wins the seat in the Republican primary has a very good chance of winning the general election. President Donald Trump carried Wyoming by more than 45 points in the 2024 election.
Mr. Hagemann defeated then-Rep. 2022 Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney. Cheney fell out of favor with Trump after she voted to impeach him in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and joined Democrats in investigating Trump’s conduct that day.
In a statement, Hagemann praised Lummis’ work on cryptocurrencies, saying Lummis’ “forward-looking approach reflects her belief that financial and technological advances coexist and enable personal freedom and financial security.”
— CNBC’s Emily Wilkins contributed to this report.
