The crypto lobby rapidly expanded its presence on Capitol Hill in recent months as lawmakers took their first bite at legislation to regulate digital currency, according to disclosures filed this week.
At least 27 crypto companies or advocates filed their first-ever lobbying disclosures this year across some 20 firms, reflecting an increasing appetite for influence in a more crypto-friendly Washington.
The newcomers originate from all corners of the industry. There’s betting website Polymarket, a gaming company that created an NFT version of the White House Easter egg hunt, and a Seychelles-based exchange that cannot operate in the U.S. market due to a federal money laundering settlement.
Together, they spent nearly $2.8 million from April 1 to June 30 on lobbying landmark legislation promoting digital assets to the Treasury Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a host of other issues relevant to blockchain infrastructure — an increasingly sprawling ecosystem that some hope could one day be as ubiquitous as the internet.
The push has paid off for crypto so far. The GENIUS Act, a bill with bipartisan support signed by President Trump last Friday, has been regarded as the government’s “seal of approval” on the industry. The law sets up a regulatory framework for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency that is theoretically pegged to the U.S. dollar or another reference asset.
The House also advanced several other landmark bills during its monumental “crypto week,” which featured high-profile lobbying stunts such as vending machines around the Capitol and the National Mall with customized chocolate bars urging “yes” votes, bankrolled by the crypto exchange Coinbase.
Lobbying expenses that week were not covered in the second quarter disclosures.
At least 73 companies or associations focused on crypto disclosed federal lobbying activities, to the tune of about $11.4 million — a total that doesn’t include spending from investment firms like Andreessen Horowitz ($790,000) or Blackrock ($810,000) that have substantial crypto interests but also lobbied on a suite of other financial regulation issues.
Kucoin, a cryptocurrency exchange based in the Seychelles, spent the most on lobbying of any of the new companies, doling out $1 million in the second quarter on issues “related to crypto legislation and regulations” — more than industry giants like Coinbase ($970,000), Crypto.com ($430,000) and the Blockchain Association ($490,000), which represents more than 100 crypto companies.
But Kucoin isn’t even allowed to operate in the U.S. market for at least the next two years. In January, the exchange pleaded guilty for failing to properly vet its users in what the Justice Department said was a violation of federal anti-money laundering regulations. Kucoin also agreed to pay a fine of $300 million.
Still, the broader industry’s enthusiasm coincides with a historically crypto-friendly White House — a marked change from the often-wary Biden administration. Trump, himself once a crypto skeptic, now owns a spread of tokens and cryptocurrencies, which Forbes estimated in June accounted for about 60 percent of his personal net worth.
Crypto executives who packed the White House for the GENIUS Act signing earlier this week hailed the moment as “surreal” and “historic.”
“The overarching problem that the industry has faced in the last eight years is not, I would say, the inability to build things, but rather the inability to understand how what is being built interacts with existing law and regulation,” said Miller Whitehouse-Levine, the CEO of the Solana Policy Institute, which advocates for decentralized networks built on blockchain technology.
Solana, which spent $560,000 this quarter, is one of several blockchain platforms on which users can build all sorts of software: a boba rewards program, a ticketing platform, and a 5G cell network are recent examples. There’s also cryptocurrency hosted on the framework, including $TRUMP and $MELANIA, so-called meme coins owned by the president’s family.
Some crypto firms are still focused on currency issues; Bitdeer Technologies, which operates computing facilities that mine Bitcoin, spent $250,000.
But many of the companies making their voices heard in Washington want to use cryptocurrencies, or blockchain, their underlying technology, for a host of other financial products and technologies.
Polymarket, filing under the name Blockratize, is new to lobbying this year and spent $90,000 last quarter. The company allows users to make bets using cryptocurrency on basically any event: the 2028 presidential election, whether President Trump will pardon Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, or even the price of other cryptocurrencies in the near future.
Gala Games, which paid out $50,000 in lobbying, helped sponsor the White House’s annual Easter Egg Roll — a partnership that included their development of an online Easter egg hunt where users could collect NFT eggs. The company hosts online games that pay out crypto tokens as rewards.
After the successful passage of the GENIUS Act, crypto companies are now hoping that the Senate will next advance the CLARITY Act, which would stake out a blueprint for how federal regulatory agencies will oversee crypto firms. A bill banning the Federal Reserve from issuing a cryptocurrency, seen as a competitor to stablecoins, has also attracted support from the sector.
But questions linger about the future of the famously volatile industry, and Whitehouse-Levine said he is worried about another sea change after the “extreme whiplash” between presidential administrations.
“The pendulum, you know, I think was at one extreme and is now swung in the opposite direction,” he said. “My greatest fear is the possibility … of that pendulum swinging back to the same extent it just swung.”
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