Two years after crypto money helped drive Sherrod Brown out of the Senate, roughly $64 million couldn't keep him from returning.
Brown's victory over Republican Jon Husted in Ohio delivered the industry its biggest electoral loss of the 2026 midterms as Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress. The sweep also puts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of crypto's fiercest critics, in line to chair the Senate Banking Committee.
Crypto super PACs spent about $176 million across 100 seats during the election cycle, including primaries, according to Reuters, up from more than $130 million in 2024. Fairshake and its affiliated PACs accounted for $154.5 million across 89 races.
"The next Congress will bring a fundamentally different environment for crypto in Washington, and the industry should expect significantly more scrutiny," Kyle Bligen, executive director at the Decentralization Research Center, told Cointelegraph.
Fairshake, meanwhile, is left with more than $67 million heading to the 2028 elections. "Newly elected and current members will have a choice: protect consumers and American jobs or fight progress," spokesperson Geoff Vetter told Cointelegraph in an email. "We will be watching and '28 is a new map."
Crypto's $64 million bet in Ohio
Ohio was the industry's biggest bet as crypto PACs put more than $64 million into keeping Senator Jon Husted in office. His opponent, former Sen. Sherrod Brown, won the special election to complete former Sen. JD Vance's term, which ends in January 2029. He could seek a senior role on the Senate Agriculture Committee, which oversees the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Brown's comeback came two years after crypto's biggest win in 2024, when Fairshake spent $40 million to help Bernie Moreno unseat him in Ohio's other Senate seat. Some industry leaders treated that result as a warning to Congress. Gemini exchange co-founder Cameron Winklevoss declared on X: "This is what happens when you mess with the crypto army".
This year, crypto spending was part of a much larger flood of outside money. Independent expenditures in the race topped $350 million, while Brown turned the crypto spending into a campaign theme, writing "I'll be damned if crypto billionaires decide this race," in a campaign message.
The loss in Ohio may weaken the perception that defying crypto PACs carries an electoral cost in Washington. Before the vote, a Republican crypto lobbyist told Politico that a Brown win would "neuter Fairshake's perceived Sword of Damocles."
Where the money went
Nebraska, meanwhile, offered crypto PACs a significant win, with Sen. Pete Ricketts retaining his seat after Fairshake affiliate Defend American Jobs spent $13.5 million opposing independent challenger Dan Osborn.
"As the biggest spender in the Nebraska Senate race, we're proud to have helped Sen. Ricketts weather the waves of a hard-fought cycle," wrote Vetter. "Fairshake played a meaningful role in winning competitive races across the country in 2026 and we will do it again in 2028." The PAC's other Senate wins came in Republican strongholds, including Barry Moore in Alabama and Andy Barr in Kentucky.
Other spending failed to deliver the intended results, both in primaries and in November. The Fairshake network's roughly $10 million spent opposing Juliana Stratton in the Illinois Democratic primary failed to block her nomination. She later won the Senate seat. In Massachusetts, John Deaton lost despite roughly $700,000 in spending by crypto-backed Commonwealth Unity Fund to help elect him. Ken Paxton, who received crypto PAC backing in his successful Texas Republican runoff against John Cornyn, went on to lose to James Talarico.
The House brought another setback when digital assets subcommittee chair Bryan Steil lost to Democrat Mitchell Berman despite $1.9 million in crypto PAC funding.
The road ahead for crypto
The shift in congressional control could slow crypto legislation, but BitGo CEO and co-founder Mike Belshe said the election results would not alter the industry's trajectory. "Crypto has continued to move forward under different administrations and different political majorities. The GENIUS Act is now law, stablecoin rules are moving ahead, and regulators are continuing to work on tokenization and digital asset markets."
Democratic victories could also bring crypto supporters into the Senate. Advocacy group Stand With Crypto counted 19 winning Senate candidates it classified as pro-crypto and eight as anti-crypto, with 33 of the 35 Senate races called as of 9:45 p.m. UTC on Nov. 4.
Despite the crypto PAC spending against him in Texas, Talarico voted for the Texas Bitcoin reserve as a state lawmaker and is rated by the group as strongly supportive of crypto.
For industry advocates, the next challenge is building relationships with incoming lawmakers. Jessica Martinez, US policy director at Fireblocks, told Cointelegraph that many newly elected members had limited records on crypto, making "educating members early" key to shaping the Democratic policy agenda.
