In the span of a few hours, it became Crypto Twitter vs U.S. Representative Brad Sherman.
On Wednesday, Congress hosted a pair of back-to-back hearings on the topic of cryptocurrencies (read CoinDesk's coverage here and here), which notably saw Rep. Sherman – no stranger to controversy among crypto circles – call again for a blanket ban on "buying or mining cryptocurrencies."
And while Sherman is just one lawmaker among more than 400, social media observers quickly turned their sights on the California Democrat. For example, Sherman was accused of bias because his largest donor this past election cycle is a credit card payments firm based in Los Angeles (where his district, California's 30th Congressional, is based).
Sherman's declaration – and indeed, the wider social conversation around the twin hearings – led to a boost for the #CryptoCongress hashtag. According to data from Twitter analytics site Keyhole, the hashtag had a reach of over 1 million accounts and more than 2.7 million impressions from the start of the hearings yesterday to today.
As for Sherman himself, whether the member of Congress has any remarks on the hubbub remains to be seen – as of press time, Sherman's office hadn't responded to a request for comment.
From the moment that Sherman issued his remarks, the response was, to put it bluntly, unsparing:
