The Scoop
The digital assets industry’s biggest advocacy group is launching a fresh lobbying push this week to lock in its early victories.
Cryptocurrency heavyweights’ fear is that US policymakers will check out for the midterm elections without enacting their top priority: legislation that would permanently overhaul how federal agencies regulate digital assets.
It’s not for lack of effort from President Donald Trump. Bonded to the industry through a mutual distrust of traditional finance and his own lucrative ventures, Trump has so far given crypto just about everything he promised on the trail; most recently, he signed orders targeting banks that discriminated against crypto firms and letting crypto compete for US retirement accounts.
Crypto’s bigger problem lies with Congress. Industry allies overcame bitter infighting this spring to pass a bill creating rules for the small slice of the market known as stablecoins, which are pegged to non-digital assets like the US dollar. But the crypto industry is made up largely of riskier products than stablecoins — and firms fear a future president could unravel much of what Trump has done to boost them.
That agitation is the backdrop for this week’s mobilization by the group Stand With Crypto, plans for which were shared first with Semafor.
Legislation that can enshrine crypto in the US financial market beyond stablecoins has long been “the main event,” Crypto Council for Innovation CEO Ji Kim said in an interview.
“It’s so wonderful to have a pro-crypto administration, but that is something that could be overturned with the new administration,” agreed Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger. “What we want is a permanent framework.”
The advocacy group is enlisting partners like Kim and Mersinger for a “Day of Action” Thursday that will dispatch crypto advocates to lobby lawmakers for a so-called market structure bill; some have already shown up at congressional town halls. They’ve previously emailed, called or met with lawmakers more than 800,000 times, according to the group.
It will also host block parties in four states — headlined by rapper Big Sean, who’s set to appear in Detroit on Aug. 22 — this month and next.
For the industry, convincing Congress to act is a matter of long-term security; only a fraction of Americans use crypto, and a new regulatory framework could boost its saturation.
“Always, from the beginning, it was about market structure,” Mason Lynaugh, Stand With Crypto’s community director, told Semafor. “We have to codify how we want to treat crypto here.”
It won’t be easy, despite Trump’s GOP holding complete power in the capital. As a government shutdown and the 2026 election loom, time is short to advance much of anything except must-pass funding legislation before lawmakers hit the campaign trail.
As one crypto advocate put it candidly: Not only is the market structure bill not “ready for prime time this year,” but there’s an emerging possibility that “it never happens.”
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Trump raised hopes earlier this summer when he got personally involved in the fight to pass stablecoin legislation in the House. Still, the House and Senate’s market structure proposals are different from the get-go; on top of that, varying corners of the industry have competing views on the details, and multiple committees claim jurisdiction over the fight.
“They have to get a bill across the finish line soon, or it’s not going to happen,” said Todd Phillips, a former congressional aide and FDIC attorney who now teaches banking regulation at Georgia State University.
“And since Senate Banking and Senate Ag don’t seem to be talking right now, Senate Banking and House Financial Services are on different pages, and the 2026 election is right around the corner, my money is on it not happening,” he added.
Another complication: Trump’s nominee to chair the CFTC is still in limbo as some in the crypto and gambling industries appear leery of him. That slows the process for senators who want the agency to weigh in on their proposals.
“My biggest frustration is that market structure is hanging in the balance right now,” said one crypto executive, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “It’s pretty dangerous to not have a chair in there and expect market structure to pass by October or November.”
The stakes are especially high for crypto exchanges, which currently must comply with contrasting state regulatory frameworks. Two of the biggest, Coinbase and Kraken, are backers of Stand With Crypto.
Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., has said repeatedly that he wants to mark up his panel’s proposal when lawmakers return to Washington in September. Members’ proposal to create a new class of assets, dubbed ancillary assets, has sparked pushback from Democrats and divided some crypto firms.
Several crypto venture capital firms signed onto a letter supporting the idea. But one, Andreessen Horowitz, wrote its own raising concerns.
Eleanor’s view
If anything can talk the two parties into an agreement on new regulatory policy, it’s good old-fashioned campaign money.
Crypto-aligned super PACs, which spent huge sums in 2024 with the help of Stand With Crypto’s lawmaker scoring, are preparing to enter the midterms with a similarly huge war chest. They’ve previously showered their funds on both sides of the aisle, spending more than $30 million to help House Democrats in 2024.
That spending is the same reason why crypto will still enjoy far friendlier regulations than it did eight months ago — even if it ultimately fails to convince Congress to pass a law enshrining the Trump administration’s stance.
Room for Disagreement
For all of crypto’s bipartisan campaign spending, it turns out there’s also bipartisan resistance to embracing the industry’s legislative holy grail.
The top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, said on MSNBC Sunday that “we need crypto regulation, but we don’t need the regulation written by the crypto industry.”
Another, more surprising senator aligning with her: Louisiana’s John Kennedy, one of the panel’s most senior Republicans. He warned last month against the same risk of letting crypto write its own agency overhaul.
“I want industry’s contribution,” Kennedy said following a committee hearing on the bill. “But we let others, other prominent players on the internet, write their own bill before, and it didn’t turn out well.”
Notable
- The Trump family’s crypto firm on Monday announced that a tech company will sell $1.5 billion in shares to purchase its signature digital asset, The New York Times reports.