In the first half of 2026, the sector's paid advocates swarmed Capitol Hill as the U.S. Senate worked on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. About half of those registered lobbyists work as direct crypto firm employees and the rest came from outside shops or the industry's trade associations. That expensive army has so far failed to accomplish its mission
This is not crypto's mountain of more than $100 million in campaign funds meant to steer friendly politicians into Congress. Nor is it the tens of millions the industry spends each year on its many advocacy groups, such as the Digital Chamber, Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation and others, (though some of those groups' membership fees do go toward this cause). This is a separate campaign of straight-up lobbying, which is a narrowly defined field of experts who represent client interests in meetings with the federal officials writing legislation and policy
In its push for the Clarity Act, the industry spent about $2.4 million on guns for hire — the third-party lobbying firms that stalk the corridors of power full-time pushing whatever causes they're paid to represent. And its dollars supported another $2.1 million for captive lobbyists who work as employees of the trade associations. The rest of the $8 million funded crypto companies' own influence operations
As CCI put it, the group's lobbying — $610,000 worth — was used "across a range of topic areas including tax, GENIUS Act implementation, counter illicit finance, anti-money-laundering requirements and market structure."
The lobbying at the Blockchain Association involved meeting congressional staff and federal officials more than 380 times, said Chief Policy Officer Lindsay Fraser in a statement. The group's members "joined us for five fly-ins and 15 staff briefings on market structure, DeFi, tax policy, national security and more," she said
Did they lobby Clarity to death, or could some benefit be claimed?
"We're proud of what Coinbase’s in-house team and outside advisers achieved," said Coinbase spokesperson Julia Krieger, adding that effort from the company — the largest single lobbying spender in crypto — "helped bring comprehensive, bipartisan market structure legislation to the brink of passage, and laid the groundwork for regulatory action," which is now progressing at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Coinbase spent enough to make the top-ten in the overall category of securities and investment lobbying, according to OpenSecrets.org, above even Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Andreessen Horowitz
In U.S. law, lobbying must be legally disclosed through federal filings (though plenty of soft lobbying happens around the edges at parties and other events). CoinDesk's review focused only on the first two quarters of the year — the most recent filings available, and nothing from 2025, which was also busy with crypto policy efforts
Looking at the overall field of lobbying that didn't explicitly flag the Clarity Act, four digital asset firms cleared the million-dollar threshold influencing crypto topics, including leader Coinbase, followed by $1.5 million from a16z, $1.4 million from Binance (all on outside lobbyists) and Crypto.com, which spent $1.2 million
Industry companies and trade groups typically devoted the majority of their individual spending on their own lobbyist employees. When they sent checks to professional influence shops, that money scattered far and wide — to at least 42 distinct lobbying shops — though there were some firms that drew quite a bit more than others
Checkmate Government Relations took in about $1.8 million in crypto-related money in the first six months of 2026 — most of that from Binance. The North Carolina operation is a relatively recent entrant into the lobbying field, though its client base is an epic list of corporate interests, including healthcare, technology, financial firms, tobacco companies and a major firearms manufacturer, and the firm is strongly associated with Republican interests and the administration of President Donald Trump
Another of the industry's favorites is Sternhell Group, run by Capitol Hill veteran Alex Sternhell. His firm took in $660,000 from digital assets names in those two quarters, and three of his four most lucrative lobbying clients came from crypto, according to the filings
Neither Sternhell nor Checkmate responded to requests for comment on this year's crypto lobbying
Among the crypto world's top outside firms specifically tied to its legislative campaign were Michael Best Strategies, Goldstein Policy Solutions (which merged with Federal Hall Policy Advisors) and Phronesis DC, each getting at least $200,000 for their work in the first half of 2026
During the Clarity Act negotiations, meetings with administration officials and lawmakers could include a huge array of these lobbyists. Some insiders in the negotiations had expressed concerns the industry struggled to push its efforts in the same direction
Some of the sector's critics also said they noted that blood in the water, including Corey Frayer, a former SEC official who is now director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America. He said he saw "very big internal infighting and a lack of unification among the industry on significant policy decisions in the bill."
"Crypto companies tend to ignore the advice of experienced compliance people that they hire; they ignore the advice of outside law firms; and I would not be surprised if they spent a lot of money on lobbyists, both internal and external, whose advice they ignore," Frayer said
But lobbying isn't necessarily a binary proposition. While the industry failed to convince the U.S. Senate to pass the Clarity Act — and even the most optimistic are uncertain whether it can get another shot in the brief, end-of-the-year period known as the lame duck session — there are other points of progress to note
The crypto industry's consolation for not getting a new crypto law: The legislation had never progressed this far before, and it could provide some foundation for the next effort, especially where it secured some hard-fought bipartisan agreement. Also, more lawmakers know a lot more about crypto now than they did last year
The lobbying workload continues as the U.S. markets regulators make crypto policy moves, including proposing complex new regulations, and crypto lobbyists are in the agency's offices, just as they were with Senate meeting rooms during Clarity negotiations
"Following this month's Senate vote on Clarity, we're taking stock of where things stand and making sure our time and resources line up with our members’ priorities," said Blockchain Association's Fraser, and a component of that will be "deepening our work with the SEC and CFTC."
As Coinbase's Krieger remarked, "Washington is a long game."
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