Sam Bankman-Fried's lobbied cryptocurrency bill won't make it due to the FTX bailout

Bankman-Fried spent millions lobbying for his project and political donations and was also the most visible voice of the industry in Washington.   However, the sale of FTX prevented Sam from becoming a crypto king.

Minutes after the FTX exchange boss made the shocking decision to sell out to Binance on Election Day, industry insiders said the Bachmann-Friede priority bill is "dead" in Washington - or at least on life support. 

"It's dead. Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead," said Messari CEO Ryan Selkis.

Bankman-Fried was the most prominent defender of the bipartisan bill, sponsored by Senators Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich, and John Boozman. The Digital Consumer Protection Act, introduced in August, would have given the Commodity Futures Trading Commission new authority to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges and spot markets. 

The bill and Bankman-Fried Sam himself were heavily criticized by supporters of decentralized finance, who said the legislation would hurt their projects. After a revised version of the bill became public, the criticism reached a frenzy, bringing the personal objections of decentralized finance advocates into the public domain.

The Bankman-Fried crypto crisis also forced the industry to seek ways to protect its credibility in Washington. According to Selkis, the collapse of FTX could taint politicians' attitudes toward the industry or push lawmakers to pass legislation that would stall the sector.

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