How the political spending of cryptomotos is paying off

At the end of an hour audience Last month, Senator Ruben Gallego, a Arizona Democrat, put himself on the side of a group of Republicans in a very disputed debate. He voted to advance in the Genius Law, a bill backed by the cryptocurrency industry.

“It is clear that digital assets are here to stay,” Mr. Gallego saying After the audience of the Senate Banking Committee. Breaking of the main democrat of the committee, he called the bill a “step in the right direction.”

The vote, from 18 to 6 years, was only preliminary, advancing a bill that will require the approval of the complete Senate. But in the cryptographic world, it was celebrated as a moment of claim.

Mr. Gallego is part of an increasingly influential cohort in Congress: beneficiaries of the generosity of the cryptographic industry. During a strict career in the Senate last year, it was helped for $ 10 million super PACS financed by three large cryptographic companies, including the exchange of Coinbase digital currency. The ads financed by the money promoted by Mr. Gallego military service and support for <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/15/crypto-election-ads-fairshake-00183700″ title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>border execution.

Now, he and dozens of other legislators supported by Super PAC are taking measures in Congress to advance in cryptographic priorities, delivering a series of victories long as an industry with an extensive history of fraud and volatility.

In the Senate, these legislators have supported the Genius law, which would pave the way for companies to issue Stablecoins, a digital currency designed to maintain a price of $ 1. and in <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/2025/03/12/house-passes-ways-means-legislation-to-rollback-biden-administrations-midnight-crypto-rule-in-bipartisan-vote/” title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>both <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.axios.com/2025/03/05/biden-crypto-regulations-irs-vote” title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>camerashave voted to repeal a rule of the age of a biden that <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/senate-crypto-tax-repealed-defi-irs-b97c1f7b” title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>requested Cryptographic companies will report certain fiscal information at the service of internal taxes.

An industry spending millions of dollars to influence Congress is not unusual. But crypto's political machine has stood out for the scale of its expenditure, and the speed of the results.

The industry has responded with joy. The expense is already “giving fruit,” said Josh Vlasto, a Fireshake spokesman, a Super PAC who worked with two PAC Affiliates to support the candidates for those of the Pro-crypto Congress. “This is a change in the total sea in terms of how Congress approaches this industry.”

Cryptographic legislation is progressing just when US regulators replicate a campaign to apply years. Since the inauguration of President Trump, the stock exchange and securities commission has eliminated demands against the main cryptographic companies such as Coinbase and Kraken, raising a legal cloud over the industry. An investor in the cryptography itself, Trump signed an executive order last month asking for the creation of a national cryptography reserve, a government reserve containing bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Stablecoin's legislation is prepared to benefit Mr. Trump's commercial interests. At a cryptography conference in March saying Stablecoins “would expand the domain of the US dollar” and request “common sense” legislation. A few days later, World Liberty Financial, the cryptography firm that his family helped to begin, announced that he would start selling a stablecoin called USD1.

The Stablecoin bill could go to the Senate floor to vote in the coming weeks, to alarm some Democrats who argue that Congress is giving the industry and Mr. Trump exactly what they want.

The cryptographic industry has “spent a lot of money, and many of our members are beneficiaries,” said Maxine Waters representative of California, the main democrat in the Chamber Financial Services Committee. “It is possible that many of them have not taken the time to really examine what we are doing.”

Mr. Gallego was not a sponsor of the genius law, and has said that it requires adjustment. (The full name is the National Innovation Law for National Innovation of the United States). But he has also defended the bill, saying that it includes protections for consumers.

“The Galician senator believes that it is important to have a seat on the table and work with colleagues on both sides,” said Jacques Petit, his spokesman, in a statement. “It is still the priority of the senator to ensure that the right railings are.”

In an interview, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who was co -cross -governing of the genius law, said that cryptographic expense had no impact on legislation.

“If you made your decisions about what you are based on who is giving you the greatest amount of money, you would fail as a member of Congress,” said Mrs. Gillibrand, who was not financed by the Super PACS crypto.

During the Biden administration, the industry hired expensive lobbyists to press for federal legislation, without advancing much. The 2024 campaign was a turning point.

A group of cryptographic executives and political strategists formed Fireshake and two Affiliated Super PacsDefend US jobs and protect progress, which spent more than $ 130 million to influence the strict careers of Congress throughout the country. The expense was funded mainly by Coinbase, Digital Monine Business Ripple and the Risk Capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which has financed more than 100 new cryptographic companies.

The candidates backed by the Super PACS won 53 of 58 races. In Ohio, defending US jobs spent $ 40 million to support Bernie Moreno, a cryptographic republican businessman who unleashed Senator Sherrod Brown, Democratic president of the bank committee and an open cryptographic critic. Protect Progress spent $ 10 million to help Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, to win a seat in the Senate in Michigan. And another $ 10 million of the Super PAC increased to Mr. Gallego, who had spoken favorably About crypto in the past.

Since then, the industry has proposed to convert those electoral victories into legislation. Executives of companies such as Coinbase, Ripple and Binance, a giant exchange that resolved the criminal charges with the United States government in 2023, have descended to Washington, meeting with legislators and posing for photographs in the steps of the United States capitol.

His first priority is the bill to establish rules for Stablcoins. The second is the “market structure” legislation that would guarantee that most cryptocurrencies are not subject to application demands by the SEC, which made a repression during the Biden years.

Many legislators backed by crypto Super Pac are positioned to advance these objectives. Mr. Moreno, Mr. Gallego and Senator Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican who was supported by the PACs, served in the Senate Banking Committee. Mr. Gallego is also the highest ranking Democrat in a new Senate Subcommittee dedicated To crypto.

A draft of the cryptographic market structure bill is still in process. But a group of senators, including Senator Tim Scott, the South Carolina Republican who presides over the bank committee, presented the genius law in February.

Somehow, companies that emit Stablcoins are similar to banks. It is assumed that the currencies are backed by the assets that the issuer has in reserve: if a company sells a million stablecoins, it should have $ 1 million in a vault somewhere so that customers can exchange the coins at any time.

But over the years, cryptographic companies have been examined for not maintaining enough reservations. At the same time, Stablecoins has become a useful tool for criminals looking to move money through borders.

In theory, Genius law addresses those problems in describing the rules for Stablecoin issues. But in February, a coalition of consumer groups called The bill “a list of wishes of the cryptographic industry, not an adequate regulatory regime”. They argued that the requirements of the invoice were too lazy and would create great risks for customers.

Even some cryptocurrency enthusiasts have expressed reservations. A provision in the Genius law would allow foreign companies to overcome some of their requirements.

When the bill advanced from the Senate Banking Committee, four Democrats who are not Mr. Gallego, none of whom he received the support of Fireshake, he also voted for it, together with Mr. Moreno, Mr. Banks and 11 Republicans who were not backed by the crypto PACS.

A similar bill, the stable act, was inserted In the camera last month, which leads the Democrats to raise concerns that the new rules could benefit Trump's cryptographic business.

“The president of the United States of America should not use the office of the office to create businesses that are enriched,” Waters said in an interview.

But after a marathon hearing on April 3, the Chamber Financial Services Committee 32 to 17 To move the bill to the complete chamber.

The president of that committee is a representative French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, a cryptography defender for a long time, co -cross -configator of the Stablecoin bill and the beneficiary of $ 100,000 in Fireshake expenses.