- On March 29, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren announced that she was raising an anti-crypto army.
- The announcement inspired a protest song that yielded unexpected returns for the songwriter.
- Crypto proponents say the U.S. is fighting an impossible battle against progress.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is a known crypto skeptic, and has employed every weapon in her arsenal in her war against crypto, from opinion pieces to open letters, and even a bill that would have placed anti-money laundering (AML) requirements on decentralized crypto products.
Bidding for re-election, Warren has reiterated her anti-crypto stance, making it a focal point of her campaign. In a clip on Twitter on March 29, the lawmaker quoted a previous Politico article that said she is raising an “anti-crypto army,” suggesting the senator plans to forge alliances with fellow lawmakers to enact her anti-crypto agenda in Congress.
The latest campaign dominated conversations on crypto Twitter last week, sparking several reactions from community members and industry leaders – including a protest song.
Warren Diss Sells for Nearly $10,000
One of the most impressive responses came from Jonathan Mann, popularly known as songadaymann, an artist who claims to have written a song every day since January 1, 2009. Mann sells his work as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the blockchain.
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On March 31, the songwriter shared a song written to protest Warren and her supposed anti-crypto army. It yielded unexpected returns.
In his song, Mann argues that blockchain technology and applications like NFTs ensured that artists like him did not have to share earnings with big corporations which offered streaming services. Warren’s anti-crypto stance helps entrench the power of the big corporations, which she claims to be against, Mann said.
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“Oh, so what am I supposed to do? That’s the question that I have for you,” the artist sang, closing the song.
“It’s just my livelihood I’m trying to pursue and you want to tear it down.”
The song sold for a whopping 5.324 ETH (approximately $9,649.59 USD at the time of purchase, per Etherscan data) on the artist’s auction website after 21 bids on April 1.
"Since i write a song a day, i never know how people are going to react to given songs," the artist told DailyCoin. "it was a nice surprise!"
This significantly exceeded the value of Mann’s previous song on President Donald Trump’s indictment, which sold for 0.04266 ETH. The artist’s second-highest-earning song is a testament to just how riled up the crypto community is by the lawmaker’s campaign. He revealed that his biggest payday came at EthDenver, where his song “Fuck SBF” sold for 6.9 ETH.
Half the money goes to SongADAO, my dao,” Mann said, detailing how he planned to use earnings. The other half would go towards paying his bills, he revealed.
‘A Losing Battle Against Progress’
Joshua Lapidus, a founding steward of Opolis and SporkDAO, who bid 1.5 ETH for the protest song, responding to the sale, asserted that no amount of effort from Warren or other policymakers could undo the progress in blockchain technology.
“You can wage a losing battle against progress or you can help to craft reasonable regulation,” the crypto proponent tweeted.
Announcing his bid for the song on Saturday, Lapidus described the lack of intermediaries as powerful and beautiful. Meanwhile, Warren does not appear to be moved by pushback from the crypto community.
Warren Doubles Down
Warren has doubled down on her anti-crypto stance. In a clip of a recent interview with Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd that has made the rounds online, she asserted that nothing is backing Bitcoin.
On the other hand, Warren threw her weight behind central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). According to the lawmaker, it is time for the U.S. government to move in that direction.
On the Flipside
- Stacks co-founder Muneeb Ali has urged the crypto community to rally behind Warren’s political opponents via donations.
- Representative Tom Emmer has recently proposed a bill to bring clarity to the market that has widely received support from the industry.
Why You Should Care
Warren is a leading U.S. senator and former presidential candidate, with significant political capital to influence crypto policy. Her latest campaign comes at a time of heightened uncertainty for the developing industry in the U.S., in the wake of what appears to be a broad regulatory crackdown.
