In 2021, a regulator named Gary Gensler launched a multi-year campaign to ruin the crypto industry. At the behest of his powerful patron in the U.S. Senate, Gensler and his allies brought the full power of the federal government—fines, criminal probes and more—to bear on law-abiding American entrepreneurs. In response, those entrepreneurs organized a political campaign that drove Gensler and his party from office. Their victory marked the crypto lobby’s emergence as a powerful new player in Washington, DC—one that stood for economic freedom and the right to conduct business free from the arbitrary abuse of government power.
So much for that. During the last week, a new regulator unleashed a wave of intimidation that would make even Gensler blush, and we didn’t hear a peep from the crypto industry. It was a different agency this time, but the behavior was all too familiar: After comedian Jimmy Kimmel made a tasteless joke, the chair of the FCC pressured a TV network to take him off the air. The regulator didn’t invoke law or due process, but instead warned like a mob boss “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” President Donald Trump then made clear there’s more where that came from, suggesting TV networks that cover him negatively should have their licenses taken away.
It’s the sort of arbitrary abuse of government power that crypto leaders hated when Gensler did it to them. But their response to this similar abuse directed at broadcasters has been crickets—or worse. For instance, pro-Bitcoin Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), a self-described libertarian and longtime advocate for limited government, piped up to say it might be time to reconsider the scope of the First Amendment.
You can make the case that, for crypto executives, defending the likes of Jimmy Kimmel is not their job. After all, it’s not like the CEOs of firms in the oil or pharma sector are rushing to wade into an FCC controversy. Still, and maybe this is naive, one would think that the leaders of an industry founded to promote ideals of privacy and freedom would be willing to stick out their necks just a little.
Jeff John Roberts
jeff.roberts@fortune.com
@jeffjohnroberts
