By Jasmine Hall
Jackson Hole News&Guide
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

JACKSON —  Wyoming leaders took to the stage on Wednesday at the second Wyoming Blockchain Symposium to express their enthusiasm for the future of cryptocurrency.

U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis and Gov. Mark Gordon headlined the invitation-only symposium for  investors, entrepreneurs and policymakers at the Four Seasons Resort in Teton Village.

Attendees included American Bitcoin Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Eric Trump, Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Chris Waller and SALT Chairman Anthony Scaramucci. 

SALT, a global investment platform, and Kraken, a crypto platform headquartered in Wyoming, hosted the event.

Lummis and Gordon discussed their roles in digital assets legislation at the federal level, the high potential for the industry since President Donald Trump took office and how Wyoming is at the forefront of the U.S. digital economy after launching its own state-issued stablecoin this week.

Lummis also addressed criticism she received for owning bitcoin while being a staunch advocate for it.

At the symposium, she was called a “Nostradamus” for her predictions about the industry’s success last year.

“It’s the difference between night and day,” Lummis said Wednesday morning in response to what Kraken Co-CEO Arjun Sethi called a “great year” for crypto. 

“From last year policy-wise to now. When President Trump was elected, he installed pro-crypto people in key positions. The Senate was taken over by Republicans.”

She helped push through the GENIUS (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins) Act, a new federal law signed by Trump in July. It establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoin — a kind of digital asset. The White House said in a fact sheet that the law will help the U.S. lead the global currency revolution and protect consumers in the digital market.

Now, Lummis and other lawmakers are working on other digital market regulation legislation she hopes will get done before the end of the year. She told conference attendees that she wanted the digital asset industry to easily understand “the rules of the “road.”

“We have regulators, several of whom you’ve heard from during this conference, who both understand and are apt to write rules that are clear so you’re not dealing with SEC enforcement actions,” Lummis said. “You’re not having to guess what rules and standards you will be held to.”

Lummis also introduced the Bitcoin Act in March to establish a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and direct the U.S. to acquire 1 million bitcoin over a five-year period using Federal Reserve remittances, gold certificate revaluations and “other budget-neutral strategies. The legislation has been referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

At the end of a 20-minute discussion about how Congress continues to find ways to support the digital asset industry, Lummis was asked about the state of Wyoming’s goals for cryptocurrency and her own connection.

Kraken Co-CEO Sethi inquired if she owned any crypto and joked about who she could “blindly trust” with her investments. He also teased Lummis about finding him subsidized housing in Jackson to move from California after Kraken relocated its headquarters to Wyoming in June.

“I put my individually held stocks, which were very few, and the five bitcoin that I own, in a blind trust,” Lummis said, “because I was getting heavy criticism for owning bitcoin and then advocating for it in Wyoming.”