After US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was removed from office, Patrick McHenry, who supports the crypto industry, became the most senior Republican in the House of Representatives.

Many questions remain unresolved, including who will be the next speaker and whether the U.S. government can continue to avoid a government shutdown after the temporary funding agreement expires on November 17.

These two lingering questions could have an impact on the crypto world.

Crypto allies are hard to find in Washington, and McHenry is one of the few lawmakers friendly to the crypto industry. Last week, he threatened to subpoena U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler over his dealings with collapsed crypto exchange FTX.

McHenry also currently serves as chairman of the Financial Services Committee, a position that may soon change.

“If Patrick McHenry is forced to serve as speaker, he will give up the chairmanship of the Financial Services Committee.” Sean Tuffy, a regulatory affairs expert and former Citigroup executive, said, “This will cause the Financial Services Committee to lose a person who supports the encryption industry. I'm afraid it will affect efforts to introduce the encryption bill."

Another crypto ally, Tom Emmer, has been promoted as McCarthy's official successor. But Emmer said last week he still had no intention of seeking the position.

Market clouds

A near government shutdown may also pose a threat to the crypto market.

Coinbase director of institutional research David Duong said in a report on Friday that the government shutdown may increase volatility in the very short term.

“Volatilities in traditional risk assets may spread to the crypto space due to knee-jerk reactions from market participants, but we believe this anxiety may be short-lived.” Duong said that digital assets like Bitcoin should “recover quickly, as they tend to It is a good hedge against the inherent failure points of the traditional financial system.”

These issues may be gone for the time being, but with the next government shutdown deadline coming in 44 days, these issues will continue to hang over the market