The collapse of FTX was an enormous setback for the crypto industry’s efforts in Washington. Last year, the S.E.C. sued Coinbase and other crypto companies, arguing that the digital assets they allowed customers to buy and sell were unregistered securities. In May, the industry notched a rare legislative victory when Congress voted to overturn an S.E.C. accounting guideline that crypto companies had disputed. Mr. Biden vetoed the resolution.
Now, the industry is fighting back. Fairshake has announced plans to participate in four other Senate races this year, including close contests in Ohio and Montana, where Democrats who have been critical of crypto are up for re-election. Privately, crypto executives have credited Fairshake with softening some skeptical legislators, including Senator Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat, according to two people familiar with the conversations. Mr. Brown, who is the chair of the Senate Banking Committee, said in April that he was open to advancing a bill that the industry supported.
A few weeks after the California Senate primary in March, Representative Adam Schiff, the Democrat who defeated Ms. Porter, visited Coinbase’s offices in Mountain View, Calif. He met with representatives from Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz and the crypto-focused investment firms Electric Capital, Paradigm Capital and Haun Ventures, two people familiar with the meeting said.
Mr. Trump has not always been a crypto supporter. He has said that he preferred dollars to Bitcoin and in 2019, he tweeted that digital currencies were “based on thin air.” But lately, some crypto executives — in the market for a political savior — have embraced him.
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