US Crypto Industry Spent $8 Million Lobbying for Market Structure Bill That Still Failed in the Senate

The crypto industry spent $8 million lobbying for the Clarity Act in the first half of 2026, out of $13 million in total sector lobbying spending over the same period. Despite that outlay, the bill failed in the Senate on September 15, falling one vote short of the 60 needed for cloture: 49 in favour, 50 against, with no Democratic support.

The Clarity Act, which would divide oversight of digital assets between the CFTC, which would regulate tokens treated as commodities, and the SEC, which would oversee those sold as investment contracts, had cleared the House of Representatives comfortably on July 17, 2025, by 294 votes to 134, including 78 Democrats. The Senate's Agriculture and Banking committees each adopted their own versions of the bill in January and May 2026, and a cloture motion was filed on August 8.

The vote's arithmetic reflected manoeuvring inside the chamber. Senator Thom Tillis voted against the bill strategically, a move intended to preserve the option of bringing it back for another vote. Senator Ruben Gallego, joined by roughly a dozen colleagues, had pushed for safeguards addressing the crypto activities of the Trump family, a sticking point that complicated efforts to build a bipartisan coalition. Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong had already withdrawn his public support for the bill in January.

Who paid, and how much

Coinbase was the largest single spender pushing for the legislation, at roughly $2.2 million, followed by Kraken at $1 million. Digital Currency Group, Jump Crypto and Paradigm also lobbied in favour. The Blockchain Association said it held more than 380 meetings with congressional staffers. Public Citizen had previously counted 320 registered crypto lobbyists in 2021, more than one for every two members of Congress.

Jesse Unruh's old line on political money still applies: "L'argent est le lait maternel de la politique."

Regulators move where Congress did not

With the bill stalled, regulators have continued to advance measures favourable to the industry without new legislation. SEC chair Paul Atkins launched Project Crypto in the summer of 2025, and in September 2025 the SEC approved generic listing standards for commodity-based trust shares, clearing the way for dozens of altcoin exchange-traded funds. The CFTC has separately opened spot crypto trading, including with leverage, on regulated futures exchanges.

The Senate is scheduled to sit until November 6, while the House has already left Washington to campaign, leaving little legislative runway before the midterms. Industry-aligned political spending continues regardless: the Fairshake political action committee, funded by Coinbase, Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz, committed $30 million on September 22 against Senator Sherrod Brown, with a bit more than $90 million left for the November 3 election. A previous campaign, Defend American Jobs, spent about $40 million against Brown in 2024.