After spending unprecedented amounts of money to sway races up and down the ballot, the cryptocurrency industry is perhaps the biggest winner of the 2024 election cycle — to the potential detriment of consumers and the financial system.
Just a decade ago, crypto was largely unheard of — but now the industry is worth more than $3 trillion and will have more than 270 crypto-friendly politicians in the House of Representatives, a majority of senators with favorable views on the nascent industry, and multiple allies in president-elect Donald Trump’s White House.
Three cryptocurrency political action committees spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars trying to elect pro-crypto candidates on both sides of the aisle — the most of any industry this election cycle. This so-called “crypto triad” even donated to influential politicians’ campaigns not facing reelection or in uncompetitive races.
The coming years will be pivotal for crypto regulation. Experts say that Trump could stack relevant agencies with crypto boosters and crypto-backed lawmakers will likely push to weaken regulatory efforts, allow the digital money to become more entwined with everyday consumers, and rollback rules designed to crack down on money laundering and terrorist financing — provisions that can be burdensome for crypto exchanges.
These pro-crypto measures could undermine investor protections and jeopardize the larger financial markets by allowing the extremely volatile industry to avoid scrutiny and become more entrenched with traditional markets, experts told the Lever.
The crypto industry has been marketed as a way to fight back against large banks that have taken advantage of consumers for decades, but the industry’s unpredictability…
Auteur: Freddy Brewster
