When Sen. Cythia Lummis was first sworn in to the United States Senate in 2021, she was the first owner of cryptocurrency in the Senate’s history.

Now she is the first-ever Senate chair of the newly formed subcommittee on digital assets as President Donald Trump vowed to be the ‘crypto president.’

The dramatic shift on crypto demonstrates just how much can change in four years, especially with a new president.

‘It’s fabulous,’ Lummis told the Daily Mail. ‘The Biden administration had done everything it could to snuff out digital assets.’

Shortly after taking office, Trump established a Council of Advisers for Digital Assets and appointed David Sacks as his ‘Crypto Czar.’

Lummis said she had met with Trump’s cryptocurrency czar David Sacks a few times and that she was impressed by the progress they were making.

‘I think they’re doing a good job,’ she said. ‘I think their emphasis is in the right place.’

Lummis and her Senate allies cheered the passage of the GENIUS Act earlier this month, a bill that aims to regulate some cryptocurrencies with a 66-22 vote.

The bill’s passage first effort by Congress to formalize the use of digital currency backed by the U.S. dollar or gold.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., arrives in the Capitol for a vote

AI and crypto czar David Sacks attends The White House Digital Assets Summit at the White House

Democrats led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren said their opposition was based on stopping the Trump family from enriching themselves in the industry.

But key figures in the industry see Warren’s opposition to legislation as one more example of why she is one of the biggest adversaries to the industry.

While opponents consider cryptocurrency as a threat to the US dollar, Lummis views it as an asset.

‘I see it as an augmentation to harden and improve the U.S. dollar to remain the world’s currency, they see it as a threat,’ she said.

Trump has given a wide berth to the cryptocurrency industry, but he has also been criticized for hosting lavish dinners at his Washington, DC golf club for buyers of his meme-coin $TRUMP.

Democrats expressed outrage that Trump, as president of the United States, was boosting interest in the meme-coin by rewarding investors with personal access to the president

But even Lummis and other Senate Republicans expressed concerns.

“This is my president that we’re talking about, but I am willing to say that this gives me pause,” Lummis told NBC News referring to meme-coins as ‘cringey’ but legal.

But Trump defied any notion that he was acting inappropriately.

‘Ultimately, no matter what it is, I always put the country way ahead of the business,’ he during his speech at the event, adding ‘You can’t say that about Hunter,’ referring to President Biden’s son who started selling paintings for up to $500,000 after his father took office.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is a staunch opponent to the cryptocurrency industry

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio lost his reelection campaign after siding against the cryptocurrency industry

Lummis first bought Bitcoin in 2013 and 2014 after she learned about it from her son-in-law. At that time, it was only $300 per BTC. Today a bitcoin is hovering around $95,000.

‘When you have skin in the game, you start to learn about something,’ she said in an interview with the CoinDesk podcast.

In those days, the digital assets industry was not on anyone’s radar in Congress, but that soon changed after Biden and Congressional Democrats tried to choke the industry according to CNBC.

‘Digital assets were never a player on the political contribution scene in the last election that changed,’ Lummis said.

Crypto-related PACs and other groups spent more than $245 million in political donations, nearly half of all corporate money spent in the election.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, the single biggest opponent to the industry, defied bitcoin advocates ahead of his reelection campaign.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., arrives for a meeting on Capitol Hill

Senator Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., speaks to reporters in the Senate Subway of the U.S. Capitol

‘Bring ’em on,’ he jeered when reporters asked about crypto interests spending big against his campaign. ‘If they think that’s the way to attack someone politically? Pretty amazing.’

Brown was defeated by Republican blockchain entrepreneur Bernie Moreno, an earth shattering political victory for the industry.

Lummis does not consider herself a ‘bitcoin millionaire’ she told the Daily Mail, noting she put her assets into a blind trust to avoid being cast as a politician trying to enrich herself by boosting the industry.

But she is still a huge champion of digital assets.

‘If I were not a member of the US senate and was a private citizen, that’s where I would put my money,’ she said.

As a ‘baby boomer,’ Lummis views her job to learn about cryptocurrency from her younger staffers and translate it to her colleagues in the Senate.

‘Since most of the senators are my age, I have to learn from people your age to learn how to communicate in a way that people my age can appreciate and glom onto,’ she explained to CoinDesk.

Lummis and her allies were thrilled to finally get the GENIUS Act out of the Senate Banking Committee in March.

The bill that we moved out of the Senate banking committee recently on stable coins that’s the first bill to come out of the Senate banking committee in eight years,’ she marveled. ‘This place was locked up, it was frozen, it was calcified, it was so rusty it couldn’t function and now that’s changing.’

Lummis views Bitcoin as ‘freedom money,’ she explained, and a critical path to bolster the US dollar and reduce the national debt.

‘If you buy 200,000 bitcoin a year, for five years for a total of a million a year, hold onto it for 20 years, it shows it would cut our national debt in half. That’s a game changer,’ she said.

She acknowledged that bitcoin advocates are reluctant to see government get involved in the digital assets, but that the government should make it easier for people to invest in cryptocurrency.

‘Bitcoin doesn’t need government, it is fully decentralized, it can function completely outside of government and many people would like to keep it that way, I see it as a store of value that can help government solve problems,’ she said.

Elon Musk
Lummis had nothing but praise for Elon Musk and DOGE after the billionaire took time away from his companies to tackle government waste, fraud, and abuse.

Although Musk is pivoting away from leading the DOGE effort, she was thankful for his efforts.

Lummis recalled meeting Musk at the beginning of Trump’s administration when he was first promoting the DOGE idea to US Senators.

‘I’m very impressed with him. I think that he has an unusual personality, its possible that he’s slightly on the spectrum,’ she said with a smile. ‘He’s also one of the most brilliant geniuses of our time.’

Elon Musk in a Cabinet meeting

Demonstrators continue weekly protest rallies outside of a Tesla dealership to call to boycotting Tesla cars and opposing many actions taken by President Trump and Tesla owner Elon Musk

Musk’s greatest achievement, she said, was finally exposing the ‘ill-defined and wasteful’ amount of taxpayer funds shoveled out to non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

‘I think that Elon Musk uncovered some of that and I think it’s embarrassing to the Democrats and I think it foiled their plot,’ she said.

Musk announced his is shifting his focus to his businesses, but the DOGE efforts will continue.

He described DOGE as a ‘way of life’ like Buddhism.

‘Is Buddha needed for Buddhism? Was it not stronger after he passed away?’ he asked playfully in an interview with Fox News.

Lummis urged critics of Musk to listen to his interviews on Joe Rogan’s podcast outlining some of his work.

‘He’s obviously principled and sincere about what he’s doing and I just admire the guy,’ she said.