Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has a "fairly lengthy list" of last-minute Biden regulations that Republicans may try to undo in the coming weeks, he tells Axios — including the IRS broker reporting rule for digital assets.

Between the lines: The Congressional Review Act (CRA) gives Congress until mid-May to reverse what Republicans are calling the "midnight rules" of the Biden administration.

State of play: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will kick things off next week by introducing three resolutions to erase Biden moves on crypto, energy and internet access.

• "We are scrubbing right now to determine what is eligible," Thune said at an event Tuesday at the American Petroleum Institute.

How it works: CRA resolutions have to pass with majority votes in both chambers of Congress.

• Those votes can only happen 15 legislative days into a new Congress — the power won't be available until late January or early February. The window for action closes 60 days in.

The IRS broker reporting rule has sparked outrage in crypto circles.

• It requires reporting on income earned in cryptocurrencies but expands the definition of "broker" in the digital asset space in ways critics say misunderstand decentralized platforms and stifle innovation.
• Three crypto advocacy orgs sued over the rule in December.

What they're saying: Cruz, who chairs the Commerce committee, tells Axios that he is confident his three resolutions will pass. He expects the process to move "expeditiously."

• Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who chairs the new crypto subcommittee, is a co-sponsor of the crypto resolution, along with Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.).
• "Many in the Democratic party, led by Elizabeth Warren and Gary Gensler, have a deep and abiding antipathy to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency," Cruz tells Axios.

Zoom out: The Blockchain Association, one of the litigants in the suit against the rule, praised the effort in a statement.

• The 2021 infrastructure bill, which kicked off the broker rule saga, "was a lightning rod that sparked the crypto tidal wave into politics," Ron Hammond, government relations chair at the Blockchain Association, tells Axios. "Sen. Ted Cruz has been pushing for the broker rule repeal since Day 1."

What to watch: The law doesn't give a new Congress blanket authority to undo all of the previous administration's final rules and regulations.

💭 Brady's thought bubble: If the IRS stuck to centralized services for now, it probably wouldn't miss out on much revenue. Traders eventually end up back on those platforms to cash out anyway.

Go deeper

BitMEX, a cryptocurrency exchange that pioneered derivatives trading for digital assets, was hit with a $100 million fine by a Manhattan federal judge yesterday, Law360 reported.

Why it matters: It's the second mega-fine against the company, which paid $110 million in a civil action brought by the CFTC in 2021.

What they're saying: "Anti-money laundering and know-your-customer rules protect Americans," Matthew Podolsky, attorney for the United States, said in a statement. "Today's sentence sends a clear message."

Go deeper: BitMEX pled guilty to the charges in July.

World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance project endorsed by the Trump family, moved tens of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency onto Coinbase Prime this week.

Why it matters: Money seems to be coming into the Trump-controlled decentralized finance project.

By the numbers: A Dune Analytics dashboard has tracked $80 million worth of sales of the project's token.

• On Tuesday, it moved about $57 million to Coinbase's institutional custody provider, according to Arkham Intelligence's dashboard. Looking at its token balances, it seems to have been almost entirely in ether (ETH), the coin of the realm for the Ethereum blockchain.
• Ether was up 4.1% yesterday.

What they're saying: "We're making routine movements of our crypto holdings as part of regular treasury management, and payment of fees and expenses and to address working capital requirements," the project tweeted following the moves.

• Before the transfer to Coinbase, it appears to have exchanged a large amount of stablecoins and wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) on chain to buy ETH.

💰 Money is flowing in fast to President-elect Trump, including from the crypto world. (Axios)

🙊 Crypto and stock trading platform eToro filed confidentially for an IPO. (Axios Pro)

🙉 The SEC filed its appeal in the Ripple Labs case, right on the deadline. (Decrypt)

🏦 Some U.S. banks are warming up to crypto. (The Information)

🍳 An Oklahoma state rep filed a bitcoin reserves bill for the state. (Oklahoma House)