Crypto spent millions to defeat Sherrod Brown and elect allies. It’s ready for a repeat in 2026

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — At a five-star resort tucked in the mountains of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the cryptocurrency industry was celebrating a historic start to the year on Capitol Hill. Its priorities were sailing through Congress with unusual speed and one senator did not hesitate to say why.

Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, was asked during the August panel what had changed to clear the way for such progress.

“I got to tell you,” said Scott, R-S.C. “Thank you, to all of y’all, for getting rid of Sherrod Brown,” he said, referring to the Ohio Democrat who lost his Senate seat in 2024 to Republican Bernie Moreno.

Laughter and applause rippled through the room. “Literally, the industry put Bernie Moreno in the Senate,” he added, according to a video from the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium.

In 2024, crypto interests poured more than $40 million into that race — more than four times their spending in any other Senate contest. Brown, who headed the committee when Democrats held the majority from 2021 to 2025, had long been one of Washington’s toughest critics of digital assets. That spending on behalf of Moreno, a businessman, sent a clear message: Challenge crypto, and the industry will come for you.

Brown, in a comeback bid, is seeking a fourth term next year, and Democrats are hopeful of their chances in an election without Republican President Donald Trump at the top of the ballot. But crypto has even more to spend this cycle and is enjoying a Congress that, without Brown, has turned sharply in its favor.

“We saw what happened in the last administration,” Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, the nation’s largest crypto exchange, told The Associated Press. “We’re never gonna let that happen again.”

A pro-crypto Congress

In a striking reversal after the skepticism from Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, Congress this year has acted quickly to embrace the cryptocurrency industry after record spending in last year’s election.

Lawmakers have passed legislation establishing new regulations and consumer protections for stablecoins, a form of cryptocurrency typically tied to the U.S. dollar to limit volatility. Now, an even bigger priority for the industry — a broader bill aimed at clarifying how digital assets are regulated — is advancing through Congress.

From the White House, Trump has World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that launched its own stablecoin earlier this year.

Supporters say the new policies will strengthen oversight and add consumer safeguards, helping to legitimize a sector long dogged by volatility and scandal — from the collapse of FTX to the conviction of its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.

“Americans continue to lose money every day in crypto scams and frauds,” Brown said in a 2023 statement after Bankman-Fried’s conviction. “We need to crack down on abuses and can’t let the crypto industry write its own rulebook.”

As the Senate committee chairman, Brown was an outspoken critic of crypto and warned that digital assets opened the door to money laundering. He held several committee hearings over cryptocurrency issues, ranging from the negative impact on consumers to use of the currencies to fund illicit activities.

During the 2024 campaign, Brown remained defiant despite tens of millions in industry spending against him. He lost to Moreno, who has ties to the crypto industry, by just over 3.5 percentage points.

“Sherrod Brown’s race really indicated that it’s politically unpopular to be anti-crypto,” Armstrong told the AP. “There is no constituency for that.”

Crypto spending reshapes politics

In 2024, the crypto industry spent more than $130 million in congressional races, including $40 million in Ohio and $10 million each in Arizona and Michigan. The ads rarely mentioned cryptocurrency directly, instead focusing on promoting favored candidates — most often successfully.

“DC received a clear message that being anti-crypto is a good way to end your career,” Coinbase’s Armstrong wrote on social media after Brown’s loss.

Brown’s approach to crypto sounds different this time.

“Cryptocurrency is a part of America’s economy,” Brown said in a statement. “My goal is to make sure that as more people use cryptocurrency, it expands opportunity and lifts up Ohioans and they are not put at risk.”

It is unclear whether Brown will be targeted again. Hundreds of millions are being stockpiled by pro-crypto political action committees, many of which maintain close ties with Trump and congressional conservatives.

Brown is set to face Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill Vice President JD Vance’s seat. Husted has been a reliable crypto ally and backed the GENIUS Act, the legislation regulating stablecoins.

A majority 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 surpassing what it spent during the 2024 cycle.

Coinbase and the PAC have emphasized that they back candidates from both parties, as long as they are pro-crypto. They have yet to say publicly whether they will spend similarly against Brown.

“Last year, voters sent a clear message that the Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren agenda was deeply out of touch with Ohio values,” said Fairshake spokesperson Josh Vlasto. “We will continue to support pro-crypto candidates and oppose anti-crypto candidates — in Ohio and nationwide.” Warren is a Democratic senator from Massachusetts.

Fairshake is not alone.

Crypto entrepreneurs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have launched a $21 million group to back crypto-friendly Republicans. And another group, the Fellowship PAC, has pledged to spend $100 million in the next cycle.

A new crypto constituency

Crypto advocates believe voter sentiment, not spending, is the source of their growing influence.

“There’s a large number of people who want to see crypto rules be passed in America. And they’re users of crypto themselves,” Armstrong said.

A significant share of Americans see cryptocurrency investments as a financial hazard. Most U.S. adults, 55%, say they consider cryptocurrency a “very risky” investment, according to a Pew Research Center poll.

A relatively small group of U.S. adults say they currently own cryptocurrency, but men under 50 are especially likely to invest in it. Roughly 1 in 4 men in that age group say they own cryptocurrency, according to Gallup polling from June. And they’re more open to buying in the future: only 44% say they’re “not interested in ever buying” digital assets, compared to far higher skepticism among older men or women of any age.

That enthusiasm — combined with vast industry spending — has helped transform crypto from a niche technology into a potent political force, one now firmly embedded in the country’s financial and political mainstream.

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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.