In This Article:
The crypto world spent more than $130 million to elect more industry-friendly politicians this year, and it paid off this week.
The US elected as president Donald Trump, who made a number of promises to the industry, and the citizens of Ohio elected pro-crypto candidate Bernie Moreno to the US Senate.
Moreno’s victory means the Senate will be controlled by Republicans in 2025, spurring optimism that pro-crypto legislation could be possible in Washington, D.C.
Trump has promised to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, one of the industry’s greatest antagonists. He has also pledged to appoint a crypto presidential advisory council and establish a "strategic national bitcoin stockpile" with the help of Congress.
Digital assets rallied on the electoral victories with bitcoin (BTC-USD) hitting a new all-time high of $76,447 around 4 p.m. eastern time Wednesday per Yahoo Finance data.
"Being anti-crypto is actually bad politics," Coinbase (COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong said on X Wednesday morning in a post that included a picture of the Ohio Senate race where Sherrod Brown, a known critic of digital assets, lost to Moreno.
Coinbase is expected to be a major beneficiary of pro-industry regulation. The company is facing an expensive legal battle with the SEC over whether some of the cryptocurrencies that trade on its platform are securities.
The stock of Armstrong’s cryptocurrency exchange surged over 31% Wednesday, reaching its highest price in roughly three months.
Through a nonpartisan super PAC called Fairshake, Coinbase was also one of the crypto industry’s largest political donors during this election season. That PAC focused on funding opponents of current members of Congress known to be critics of the digital asset space.
As of noon Wednesday, 257 "pro-crypto" candidates vying for a US House seat were elected this year versus 115 "anti-crypto" candidates, according to crypto lobby organization Stand With Crypto.
In the Senate, 16 "pro-crypto" candidates have been elected compared to 12 "anti-crypto" candidates, including prominent Democrat Elizabeth Warren, according to the lobbying group.
Democrat Tammy Baldwin, another politician identified by the lobbying group as "strongly against crypto," won her Wisconsin Senate race.