Crypto Is Lobbying Congress Hard. It Wants More Than a Bitcoin ETF.

A exchange-traded fund may be coming soon, giving crypto backers their biggest victory in a decade. For crypto to make it further into the mainstream, it may need a hand from Congress. The industry’s lobbyists are working feverishly to make it happen.

Two recent events illustrate how crypto money keeps flowing. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) held a campaign fund-raiser in Manhattan in September, delivering upbeat remarks about legislation moving through Congress that would clarify how crypto should be regulated, according to attendees and an invitation seen by Barron’s. Access to the event, held in the SoHo apartment of a crypto executive, went for $500 to $21,600 per head.

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The previous day, dozens of crypto executives hosted a fund-raiser for Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who attended an industry conference in New York. The cost of attendance ranged from $1,000 for a ticket to $6,600 to co-host. “If we want to see crypto prioritized as a campaign issue, we need to show candidates that our support matters!” read the invitation.

Crypto and Washington, D.C., seem locked in a mutual embrace. In the second quarter, crypto firms spent nearly $6.6 million on lobbying, the most in any quarter, according to federal records compiled by OpenSecrets.org. Since 2020, the industry has spent more than $45 million on lobbying, while crypto company employees, led largely by FTX and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, have given $98 million in contributions to congressional lawmakers’ campaigns.

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