Crypto Becomes Next Financial Sector Under US Lawmakers’ Diversity Lens

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, has asked 20 of the largest cryptocurrency firms doing business in the U.S. to explain their hiring practices as the panel adds the digital assets industry to the financial sectors it has questioned about employment diversity.

Waters, who is also leading an effort alongside the panel’s ranking Republican to write legislation to regulate stablecoins, signed the letters alongside other committee Democrats, sending the requests to prominent crypto companies, including Binance.US, Circle, FTX and Coinbase, plus companies investing in the industry such as Andreessen Horowitz and Digital Currency Group, the parent company of CoinDesk.

“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,” according to the letters.

Crypto, which is known for its “bro culture” and is dominated by men atop most of its most prominent companies, is the latest financial sector to receive the committee’s attention. Previously, the lawmakers scrutinized banking and investment firms.

Each company has been asked to complete a survey and return it by Sept. 2.

Read more: Women-Led DAO Tackles (Lack of) Gender Diversity in Crypto