US Senator Elizabeth Warren called for another US national security investigation into one corner of the crypto sector, specifying concerns with PancakeSwap, a decentralized exchange that she says is trying to amplify coins issued by World Liberty Financial Inc, connected to President Donald Trump.
She said the exchange, which operates on multiple blockchains and is a major protocol on the Binance chain, should be reviewed for its connection to “any inappropriate political influence by the Trump Administration on compliance decisions,” Warren said in a Monday letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking them to investigate it, echoing a similar request she was involved in last month regarding WLFI.
“As Congress considers legislation on crypto market structure, including rules to prevent terrorists, criminals, and rogue states from exploiting decentralized finance (DeFi) to fund their activities, it is critical to understand whether these risks are being seriously investigated,” wrote Warren, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee who must mark up the legislation and pass it before the broader Senate can vote.
Warren has been largely sidelined in cryptocurrency negotiations on her committee, as a major group of fellow Democrats agreed to negotiate with Republicans on the bill to regulate the broader U.S. crypto markets. That process fell short of industry hopes for action before the end of the year, and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott has said he will now be on the panel’s panel in January.
Warren criticized DeFi platforms that “facilitate hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions per day and do not require users to register or show any form of identification to trade.” The treatment of DeFi remains one of the main points yet to be resolved between the parties on the market structure bill, and crypto experts have described it as a redline issue that could decide whether or not the industry will support the final legislation.
The Trump administration itself is unlikely to respond to a request to investigate the president’s business interests. White House officials and the president have continued to argue that their ties to cryptocurrencies do not constitute a conflict of interest.
That’s another sticking point in negotiations on the market structure bill: a request by Democrats to prohibit top government officials from pursuing business interests within the sector. Although negotiators on both sides have expressed confidence that they will reach a deal in the Senate, the White House has already rejected some initial proposals on that point, raising questions about the status of talks that are set to resume next month.
If the negotiation drags more than a few weeks into the new year, it could conflict with congressional budget talks that come to a head around the Jan. 30 deadline. Last time, the budget dispute paralyzed the federal government for weeks and further delayed cryptocurrency legislation.
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