General Discussion

Dem Overseeing ‘Digital Assets’ to Hold Luxury Retreat With Crypto Kingpin

Fri, February 7, 2025

Freshman Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego was recently named the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee’s new subcommittee on “digital assets,” which will oversee cryptocurrencies. On the heels of that appointment, Gallego will hold a ritzy donor retreat alongside one of the crypto industry’s biggest cheerleaders and investors, Marc Andreessen.
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Rolling Stone reached out to Gallego to ask if the senator thought it was appropriate to hold a fundraising retreat with one of the major funders of a pro-crypto Super PAC while also serving as ranking member on the Senate subcommittee overseeing the industry; the senator declined to comment. (Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Andreessen actively advised Donald Trump as he assembled his new pro-crypto administration. (Speaking on Bari Weiss’ podcast in December, Andreessen said he’d been spending half his time at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. “I’ve been trying to help in as many ways as I can,” he said.) His VC firm recently drew headlines for hiring ex-marine Daniel Penny, who was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide last year after he was filmed choking a homeless man to death on a New York City subway.

A crypto industry Super PAC called Protect Progress spent $10 million boosting Gallego’s 2024 Senate campaign. Protect Progress and its parent organization, Fairshake, received $138 million last election cycle from Andreessen, co-founder Ben Horowitz, and their firm, which has invested in crypto for years and lobbies extensively on crypto issues.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dem-overseeing-digital-assets-hold-172708955.html