'We're just getting started': How the crypto industry plans to remake Washington - POLITICO

The cryptocurrency industry, led by firms like Coinbase and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, poured substantial resources into the 2024 election cycle—most notably through the pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake, which spent a staggering $173 million in support of crypto-friendly candidates. Their efforts helped unseat prominent skeptics such as former Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Now, with Donald Trump returning to the White House and Republicans controlling Congress, the industry hopes this newly empowered leadership will move swiftly to pass legislation designating the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as the primary regulator for digital assets, simplifying a regulatory patchwork they believe has stifled innovation.

Coinbase, in particular, is calling for an end to what its president and COO Emilie Choi describes as “regulation by enforcement” and “turf wars” among federal agencies. Despite past statements from Trump that dismissed cryptocurrency as “not money” with value “based on thin air,” his new administration features notable pro-crypto figures like Paul Atkins, who will chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, and David Sacks as an adviser on AI and crypto. The crypto industry views this shift as an opportunity to broaden the technology’s domestic development, focusing on comprehensive rules rather than piecemeal crackdowns—and vows to keep expanding its lobbying efforts until “100 percent of the members of Congress understand and are pro-crypto.”