Democratic lawmakers in Congress have asked major cryptocurrency and digital asset industry players to provide data on their diversity and inclusion practices.
Specifically, the lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), chair of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, sent the request to the nation’s 20 largest crypto, Web3, and digital assets companies, as well as prominent venture capital firms with investments in crypto.
“The Committee on Financial Services in the United States House of Representatives has made diversity and inclusion a core pillar of its efforts to ensure that the U.S. financial services system works for everyone,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the 20 organizations. “There is a concerning lack of publicly available data to effectively evaluate the diversity among America’s largest digital assets companies, and the investment companies with significant investments in these companies. We believe transparency is a critical, first step to achieving racial and gender equity. That is why your participation in this snapshot is imperative in our efforts to understand how and whether the industry is working toward a more equitable environment for everyone.”
Along with Waters, the letter was signed by Reps. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), chair of the Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion; Al Green (D-TX), chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations; Bill Foster (D-IL), chair of the Task Force on Artificial Intelligence; and Stephen Lynch (D-MA), chair of the Task Force on Financial Technology.
The letter was sent to the following companies: Aave, Andreessen Horowitz, Binance.US. Circle, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Digital Currency Group, FTX, Gemini, Haun Ventures, Kraken, OpenSea, PancakeSwap, Paradigm, Paxos, Ripple, Sequoia Capital, Stellar Development Foundation, Tether, and UniSwap.