Senators Warner and Portman propose an amendment to infrastructure bill that only excludes crypto miners from broker definition; White House shows support
The bill excludes only proof-of-work mining, or the selling of hardware or software that gives individuals control of private keys to access digital assets.
The dispute did not end with this compromise: the Senate later passed a bill containing the contested crypto tax provision after an alternative compromise failed to reach a vote. That sequence made the scope of “broker” a lasting fault line rather than a drafting detail.
First-order effects
Proof-of-work miners and specified private-key technology sellers would gain a defined exclusion, while crypto developers and node operators would remain outside the amendment’s protection.
The White House’s support strengthened Warner and Portman’s narrower approach against the rival amendment backed by Lummis, Wyden and Toomey.
Second-order effects
Developers and node operators faced greater pressure to seek a broader legislative fix as the narrower carve-out concentrated compliance risk on their roles.
The split between mining and other crypto infrastructure set up a policy debate in which technical function, rather than the sector as a whole, determines who receives an exemption.
Third-order effects
The later passage of the infrastructure bill with its controversial provision points toward crypto policy being written through targeted definitions and carve-outs, leaving adjacent infrastructure roles to contest their status measure by measure.
Subsequent proposals for KYC requirements covering wallets and miners indicate that exemptions from one reporting definition do not settle the broader compliance trajectory for crypto infrastructure.
The trend: US crypto regulation is moving toward role-specific obligations, with lawmakers separating miners, wallet tools, developers and network operators rather than treating the sector as a single category.
Scoop: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been privately lobbying lawmakers against Wyden-Lummis-Toomey crypto amendment, as WH seeks to fend off push to limit new regulatory authorities, per sources familiar W/ @JaxAlemany https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Wow. Sen. Warner and Portman are proposing a last minute amendment competing with the Wyden-Lummis-Toomey amendment. It is a disastrous. It only excludes proof-of-work mining. And it does nothing for software devs. Ridiculous! Here is all it excludes: https://twitter.com/...
UPDATE: The @WhiteHouse has announced its support for an amendment that would exempt proof-of-work businesses from its $1T infrastructure bill, but not proof-of-stake validators or others. @AndrewJBates46 @nikhileshde reports. https://www.coindesk.com/...
1/ If you've been following threads on the Infrastructure bill, you know that there is a hastily conceived provision related to digital assets. This provision could have a profound negative impact on crypto in the US and unintentionally push more innovation offshore.
Joint statement in support of the @RonWyden @CynthiaMLummis @SenToomey amendment that explicitly excludes validators, hardware and software wallet makers, and protocol devs from the expanded definition of a broker. https://twitter.com/...
point of procedure: can Janet Yellen use her unelected position to lobby lawmakers? my senators didn't pick up the phone when I called to express fears about how this could impact my retirement. kind of feels like democracy is being undermined but no one is talking about it. http…
We NEED you. Pls call your Senators. Pls tweet. Pls email. We are facing major headwinds on the Wyden-Lummis-Toomey amendment. Burying financial innovation in red tape & sending devs + miners on info collection wild goose chases for info they don't know is horrible policy. https:…
.@RonaldKlain Effectively endorsing proof of work only is an environmental disaster - the Administration should know better. Wyden-Toomey-Lummus is imperfect but an improvement over current language. https://twitter.com/...
Miners are not even the ones validating in PoW. It's clueless and stupid. Also great choice of winners and losers, contributing both to global warming and export of smart people out of the US. https://twitter.com/...
just realized also that the text of the bill is technologically inaccurate. PoW doesn't validate transactions. nodes validate transactions by checking against rules. miners attach PoW to well formed blocks to ensure continuity and linearity in the ledger. but validation ≠ PoW. ht…
Make no mistake, this is a backdoor Bitcoin ban. Compliance is impossible. Their intent is to criminalize full nodes, lightning nodes, and most Bitcoin wallets. And they are not really in favor of proof-of-work; the very next bill will include some ESG thing to attack that too. h…
So confused by Bitcoiners thinking this amendment is bad for Ethereum but good for Bitcoin. It's gonna f*ck us all in the end. Listen to @balajis. https://twitter.com/...
LOL. You will not be allowed to own private keys to your digital stuff... Dunno what proposed legislation this is or how broad past crypto, but this is pretty ridiculous. https://twitter.com/...
The tragedy of this nonsense is that for many networks, network nodes cannot comply. This either means node operators are leaving the US, or increased decentralization will hinder enforcement efforts. https://twitter.com/...
Tell your senator to vote YES on Wyden-Lumnis-Tooney and NO on Warner and Portman. Call today! (And for your PoW maximalists out there, note that Warner and Portman would exclude LN). https://www.fightforthefuture.org/ ... https://twitter.com/...
We shouldn't be having this ‘brawl’ now. Most of the Senate is voting on this without sufficient info or a baseline understanding of how ‘cryptocurrency’ works. It's a huge topic that deserves time for education THEN debate THEN votes. But yeah, here we are. https://twitter.com/.…
The current cryptocurrency lobby is just a rebranded Wall Street deregulation push. And no, we shouldn't care if the cryptocurrency industry goes offshore. If that's what having rules induces, fine. We don't want industries designed to foster illicit finance and crime.
The White House is right, America needs to crack down on crypto scofflaws and tax evaders who enrich themselves through parasitism on the public. Make them pay. https://twitter.com/...
The person directly responsible for destroying the value of the dollar is lobbying against the life boat industry. Color me shocked. Crooked people doing crooked things. https://twitter.com/...