COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — At a five-star resort nestled in the mountains of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the cryptocurrency industry was celebrating a historic start to the year on Capitol Hill. Its priorities are pass through parliament With unusual speed, one senator did not hesitate to state his reasons.
Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, was asked during a panel discussion in August what had changed to pave the way for such progress.
“I have to say,” said Scott, R.S.C. “Thank you everyone for exterminating us.” sherrod brown,” he said, referring to the Ohio Democratic Party, which lost its Senate seat to Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024.
Laughter and applause echoed throughout the room. “The industry literally put Bernie Moreno in the Senate,” he added, according to a video from the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium.
In 2024, Interest in crypto assets They poured more than $40 million into that campaign. That’s more than four times the spending in any other Senate race. Brown chaired the committee from 2021 to 2025 when Democrats held the majority and has long been one of Washington’s harshest critics of digital assets. What was spent on Moreno? businessmansent a clear message: “Try cryptocurrency and the industry will come for you.”
brown, comeback bid, He is seeking a fourth term next year, and Democrats are pinning their hopes on their chances in an election where Republican President Donald Trump is not the top vote-getter. However, cryptocurrencies have to spend more time in this cycle. enjoy the parliament Without Brown, that quickly turned in their favor.
“We saw what happened with the previous administration,” Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, told The Associated Press. “We will never let that happen again.”
Congress of Cryptocurrency Proponents
In the dramatic reversal that followed, skepticism From the Democratic Party Joe Biden administration, this year’s Congress will acted quickly to embrace the crypto industry after record spending in last year’s elections.
Lawmakers passed a bill establishing new regulations and consumer protections. stable coinis a type of cryptocurrency that is typically tied to the US dollar to limit volatility. Broad legislation is currently moving through Congress aimed at clarifying an even bigger priority for the industry: how digital assets will be regulated.
President Trump from the White House fully adjusted Together with the industry, it calls for the United States to become the “crypto capital of the world.” His family has also profited from the process and holds a significant stake. world liberty financiala crypto venture that launched its own stablecoin earlier this year.
Supporters say the new policy will increase oversight, add consumer protections and help legitimize a sector long plagued by volatility and scandal. The collapse of FTX In accordance with the founder’s beliefs, Sam Bankman Freed.
“Americans continue to lose money to crypto scams and scams every day,” Brown said in a 2023 statement. Bankman Fried’s conviction. “We need to crack down on fraud and cannot let the crypto industry write its own rulebook.”
As Senate committee chairman, Brown was an outspoken critic of cryptocurrencies, warning that digital assets were opening the door to money laundering. He has held multiple committee hearings on virtual currency issues, ranging from the negative impact on consumers to the use of currencies to fund illegal activities.
During the 2024 campaign, Brown remained defiant despite tens of millions of dollars thrown against him by the industry. He lost to Moreno, who has ties to the cryptocurrency industry, by just over 3.5 percentage points.
“Sherrod Brown’s campaign really demonstrated that anti-cryptocurrency is politically unpopular,” Armstrong told The Associated Press. “There is no constituency that would do that.”
Cryptocurrency spending changes politics
In 2024, the crypto industry spent more than $130 million on congressional elections, including $40 million in Ohio and $10 million each in Arizona and Michigan. Advertisements rarely referenced cryptocurrencies directly, instead focusing on promoting favorable candidates, and in most cases were successful.
“DC has received a clear message that being anti-crypto is a good way to end a career,” Coinbase’s Armstrong wrote on social media after Brown’s loss.
Brown’s approach to crypto sounds different this time around.
“Cryptocurrencies are part of the American economy,” Brown said in a statement. “My goal is to expand opportunity as more people use cryptocurrencies, and to ensure that no Ohioan is put at risk.”
It is unclear whether Brown will be targeted again. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being stockpiled by pro-crypto political action committees, many of which maintain close ties. Connection with Trump and conservatives in Congress.
Mr. Brown will face Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was nominated to fill Vice President J.D. Vance’s seat. Husted is a trusted cryptocurrency ally and has supported the GENIUS Act. Laws regulating stablecoins.
The bulk of the crypto dollars spent against Brown last year came from Fairshake, a super PAC backed by Coinbase and others. The super PAC reported $141 million in cash on hand as of July, already more than it spent during the 2024 cycle.
Coinbase and the PAC have emphasized that they support candidates from both parties as long as they are pro-crypto. They have not yet announced whether they will spend a similar amount on Brown.
“Last year, voters sent a clear message that Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren’s agenda was deeply out of step with Ohio’s values,” FairShake spokesman Josh Brust said. “We will continue to support pro-crypto candidates and oppose anti-crypto candidates in Ohio and across the country,” said Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts.
It’s not just fair shakes.
Cryptocurrency entrepreneurs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have launched a $21 million group to support crypto-friendly Republicans. And another group, Fellowship PAC, has pledged to spend $100 million in the next cycle.
Supporter of new cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrency proponents believe that voter sentiment, not spending, is the source of increased influence.
“There are a lot of people who would like to see crypto regulations passed in the United States, and who are users of cryptocurrencies themselves,” Armstrong said.
A significant percentage of Americans view investing in cryptocurrencies as a financial risk. A Pew Research Center poll found that most U.S. adults (55%) say they think cryptocurrencies are a “very risky” investment.
Although a relatively small group of U.S. adults say they currently own cryptocurrencies, men under 50 are particularly likely to invest in cryptocurrencies. Roughly one in four men in that age group said they own cryptocurrencies, according to a June Gallup poll. And they are more open to future purchases, with just 44% saying they are “not interested in purchasing” digital assets in the future, compared to much higher skepticism among older men and women of all ages.
That enthusiasm, combined with massive industry spending, has transformed cryptocurrencies from a niche technology into a powerful political force, now firmly integrated into the country’s financial and political mainstream.
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Associated Press writer Lynley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
