It's not looking good for new crypto laws Stateside.
This may surprise those who have followed the news over the past 11 months.
Crypto firms, such as Coinbase and Binance, have surged their lobbying efforts of US lawmakers this year. Two proposed crypto laws have passed the House Financial Services Committee, one of which would put in place market structure for crypto and one that would regulate stablecoins this year.
The combination of disgraced crypto wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried facing the music in New York and political squabbling in Washington has made the prospect of any tangible legislation hitting the desk in the Oval Office any time soon a diminishing possibility.
As we said earlier, advancing out of committee is a big step for a bill to become law.
The full House of Representatives could have debated and advanced the two cryptocurrency bills this month.
Republicans in Congress have done some silly things in recent times, which have paralysed lawmaking.
The spending bill squeaked in the nick of time, but it cost House speaker Kevin McCarthy his job.
One of crypto's staunchest allies in Congress, bowtie-sporting Republican Patrick McHenry, stepped into McCarthy's role, temporarily.
He has reportedly turned down previous bids to join the party leadership.
He is a well-known figure on the Hill, and could be pressed into taking on the speaker role for good.
Regulation expert Sean Tuffy said this would be a blow to getting the crypto legislation passed.
If Mr McHenry becomes president, he would be forced to give up his chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee.
Tuffy said the two had a deep love of each other.
The crisis will push hearings on the crypto bills to late this year or early next.
By then, the US will be kicking into a presidential election year, when lawmaking will take a backseat.
But the shadow of FTX founder Bankman-Fried's fraud case is much larger and darker.
The fallen crypto king haspleaded not guilty to seven charges, including fraud and money laundering.
Bankman-Fried's trial will make cryptocurrency a hot potato that few lawmakers will want to pick up.
While the industry argues that it's a mistake to conflate FTX with crypto at large, fraud is found in every industry, which is the kind of finer distinction that may be lost on voters.
Congresspeople will look also at their colleagues who were publicly wooed by Bankman-Fried and are now embarrassed about that, particularly as more information about those relationships comes to light during the trial.
Bankman-Fried was also pushing for a bill that would give responsibility for the crypto industry to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission instead of the SEC.
The Mooted market structure bill is a similar thing, giving the CFTC most responsibility over the SEC.
It's difficult to see how a bill that bears at least a passing resemblance to some aspects of the one that Bankman-Fried backed would find widespread support in Congress during his high-profile fraud trial.