PANews reported on November 14 that according to The Block, U.S. Senator John Thune, who once supported cryptocurrency-related bills, has been selected as the majority leader of the U.S. Senate next year. The Republican from South Dakota was selected in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday.

Thune currently serves on the Senate Finance Committee, which is responsible for taxation and revenue affairs. In 2022, he co-sponsored a cryptocurrency bill called the Digital Commodity Consumer Protection Act with several senators. The bill aims to establish a legal definition for digital commodities and place their trading under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Thune also voted in May for a bill aimed at overturning the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (SAB 121).