CashNews.co
The Wall Street Journal published quite the flattering profile of U.S. Rep. French Hill on Monday (paywall) in light of the Arkansas Republican’s campaign to become chair of the House Financial Services Committee, which plays a critical role in overseeing banks, insurance companies and financial firms of all stripes.
A banker himself, Hill has served on the committee since 2015 and is currently its vice-chair. He faces an uphill climb against Rep. Andy Barr (R-Kentucky), who’s seen as closer to the incoming Trump administration than Hill.
I don’t think I’m the only one of Hill’s constituents who sees him as a haughty, ruling-class patrician. The Journal, though, sketches him as a sort of heartland underdog — it’s all a matter of perspective, I suppose:
Unlike many of the financiers in Trump’s orbit who are jostling for power, Hill didn’t build his credentials working for a large Wall Street bank or private-equity firm. He started a small community bank, speaks with a Southern drawl and says he wants to “Make Community Banks Great Again.”
Hill may not have Trump’s ear, but he does have one major thing going for him. He’s become a favorite of the cryptocurrency industry, which is eager for Congress to pass new laws clarifying the regulation of digital assets. Hill has been working since 2023 on a piece of legislation, and, according to the Journal, he’s developed a fluency in crypto-related issues possessed by few other lawmakers:
“There are some members you talk concepts with, but with French, you’re in the details,” said one lobbyist, citing Hill’s views on why they [digital assets] are securities versus commodities.
Hill’s re-election campaign this year took in thousands of dollars from the industry, including contributions from crypto exchange Coinbase and venture investor Andreessen Horowitz.
The bill Hill wrote, the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, or FIT21, passed with 71 Democrats joining Republicans in favor. The bill hasn’t had a vote in the Senate.
Crypto advocates want new legislation because regulators in the Biden administration have been quite aggressive in using existing finance rules to rein in the industry’s boom-and-bust growth and keep it at least partially contained away from the mainstream banking world. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler in particular has creatively used ambiguous regulatory language to target crypto firms at every turn.
If you’re inclined to see crypto as a dangerous Ponzi scheme and a tool for money laundering, that approach is heroic. But with Trump’s victory, Gensler and his allies are out and crypto advocates are ascendant in government in an unprecedented way. (For the record, Kamala Harris’ campaign worked to cultivate new ties to the crypto world as well.) Hill, for his part, has accused Gensler of “fear mongering” regarding the risks of crypto and has suggested Congress should investigate the SEC and other Biden administration agencies for misusing their authority.
Regardless of whether Hill wins the financial services chairmanship, some version of the bill he’s been working on has a good chance of passing Congress and becoming law. That could be quite the legacy, if crypto really does become a permanent part of the financial ecosystem. On the other hand, if the hyper-volatile crypto industry crashes again in spectacular fashion, and if the laws and regulations championed by Hill end up exposing mainstream banks and everyday households to the contagion, that’ll be a very different sort of legacy.