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Cryptocurrency firms are facing a nightmare scenario in the Senate, where the shaky state of the industry’s top priority is threatening its plans to unleash midterm campaign cash against its enemies.
Republicans had projected confidence about advancing the legislation, which would overhaul federal regulation of crypto, before senators leave Washington for their summer break. But with just eight days to go, negotiators are still at odds on multiple fronts.
That’s a problem for the crypto industry’s network of super PACs, known as Fairshake, which had nearly $140 million to spend at last count. Its backers, which include firms like Coinbase and Ripple, were counting on a Senate vote on their long-sought bill to help settle whether all that money would go just to Republicans or get shared between the parties.
“That’s the whole reason [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune has to have a vote,” one industry executive told Semafor. “You have to hold it on the record for the PAC funding side.”
The industry has resigned itself to an initial vote, rather than a final one, though even that is still not guaranteed. As Democrats warn that a failed initial vote could endanger a final product, the industry’s allies are pushing back by accusing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of maneuvering to keep their campaign cash on the sidelines.
Patrick Witt, executive director of President Donald Trump’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, panned Schumer on Tuesday as “doing the absolute bare minimum” to “avoid Democrats being blamed” if the bill didn’t pass before the election.
Another person familiar with the crypto talks speculated that the measure’s been “dead for months,” adding: “Schumer is just trying to delay crypto dropping even more $$ into races.”
Schumer is deeply involved in ongoing efforts to get a dozen crypto-friendly members of his caucus to “yes.” He’s not the only Democrat urging GOP leaders to hold off until there’s a bipartisan deal — and warning that moving sooner could backfire.
“Forcing [a] vote that would fail makes no sense,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., told Semafor. “Some people feel like they just want to put something on the board.” But “we spent a year working on this. We’re this close,” he added.
The public implosion of illicit-finance talks Tuesday suggests otherwise. More crucially: Pressure on Democrats is high to avoid appearing soft on Trump, whose first year back in office earned him $1 billion from digital assets, by passing a crypto bill that doesn’t rein in his family’s crypto deals.
“Senate Democratic negotiators are working towards a bipartisan crypto bill with strong guardrails, combats illicit finance, strong consumer protections, and holding the president to ethical standards,” a Democratic aide close to the negotiations said. “The White House has been the biggest impediment to reaching that goal.”
If senators punt in August, they’ll leave crypto’s moneymen with little to go on before Election Day. The Senate is in session for just three weeks between then and November — time that leaders are unlikely to devote to a bill without support to advance before the summer recess.
A growing number of Democratic offices are telling crypto firms that “if you make us vote now, we’re never going to engage on this bill again,” the industry executive said. “And I’m like, ‘Well, if you don’t vote now, you have no consequences for not engaging on this bill.’”
As time runs out, advocacy group Stand With Crypto said Monday it would incorporate the vote into lawmakers’ scores.
“We need to get it done” now, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told Semafor. “Because it passes, and there’s a celebration because it’s done — or the Democrats sink it, because they hate the president so much.”
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Two other crypto super PACs tied to the Winklevoss twins and Tether, the Digital Freedom Fund PAC and the Fellowship PAC, also have money to spend. But they’re both more closely aligned with Republicans than Fairshake, so a Senate vote doesn’t loom as large.
Fairshake did not comment for this story.
Senators on both sides of the aisle have reservations with how the latest version of the bill, which would divide crypto oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, handles illicit finance and stablecoin yields.
Another snag: provisions under the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Committee, which moved forward with a partisan markup earlier this year.
Yet the biggest holdup by far is the bill’s ethics provisions, which would govern how lawmakers and the president make money on crypto.
Crypto-friendly Democrats had previously conceded that any bipartisan compromise would not include the president’s children. But they derided a recent agreement between GOP lawmakers and the White House, which would box state attorneys general out of enforcement and allow Trump to keep his digital assets in a blind trust, as “wild and unserious.”
Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., is now helping some of those Democrats finalize a counterproposal, which he told reporters Wednesday he wants to “more broadly share” soon.
Yet it’s highly unlikely that administration officials agree to more changes, particularly on enforcement; the president’s team has long treated enforcement by state attorneys general as a red line.
“The White House feels like it put out what it could accept,” a third person familiar with the talks said. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Room for Disagreement
GOP leaders, eager to retain their Senate majority, have a vested interest in lining up at least one vote before summer break.
But crypto’s allies also see other reasons for optimism, including still-active negotiations and Schumer’s move to at last send the White House recommendations to fill empty seats on the SEC and CFTC.
“I’m hopeful,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said. “I’m hopeful.”
Eleanor’s view
If lawmakers don’t vote before November, crypto will still spend on midterm campaigns — it’ll just be far messier.
One of the people familiar with the talks told me that “it would have to come down to … who walked into August with blood on their hands” — a more nebulous decision, and a more awkward one for the industry.
That’s because Senate inaction is also a choice made by GOP leaders, who control the floor, and some rank-and-file Republicans (like Fairshake-backed Sen. John Curtis of Utah) who have echoed Democrats’ concerns about the bill.
It’s hard to see lawmakers resolving their differences within the next few days, particularly over reining in Trump. Crypto’s taken Capitol Hill by surprise before — most notably, when a stunning 71 Democrats supported a previous iteration of this bill on the House floor in 2024.
But this time is different, with Trump in office and Election Day much closer.
Notable
- Fairshake is 38-2 on congressional races this cycle, Politico reports.
Burgess Everett contributed to this report.