Crypto’s $206M Push Ahead of CLARITY Act Vote

Public Citizen’s analysis of Federal Election Commission filings found corporate political donations hit a record $646 million over the 18 months through June. Firms in crypto, artificial intelligence and online betting accounted for $344 million of that total, with crypto companies alone contributing about $206 million to influence policy on market structure, stablecoins, bank access and tax treatment.

Industry lobbying is focused on defining how tokens are classified, settling the SEC-CFTC jurisdiction dispute, creating a federal stablecoin regime and expanding firms’ access to banking and payment systems. Supporters say they seek statutory clarity that would last beyond one administration. Utkarsh Ahuja, founder of Moon Pursuit Capital, said, “Founders are building companies on five- and ten-year timelines, and investors are deploying capital on similar horizons. The U.S. should be the most credible and predictable jurisdiction for crypto rules.”

Much of the sector’s political energy is aimed at the CLARITY Act. The House approved the bill 294-134 in July 2025. The Senate has a cloture vote set for Sept. 15 on the motion to proceed; that procedural step requires 60 votes to limit debate and could determine whether market-structure questions are resolved before the next election cycle. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has argued that legislation is necessary to produce rules durable enough that a later regulator cannot easily reverse them.

Industry executives and lobbyists have outlined several specific policy requests. Ryan Kirkley of Global Settlement Network wants federal regulatory sandboxes that allow startups to test settlement infrastructure under supervision without the compliance costs of a large bank, plus modernized bank charters and direct access to payment rails. Parth Kapadia of OpenVPP is pushing for tax rules that treat many tiny automated payments as aggregated events rather than dozens of separate taxable transactions.

Senator Cynthia Lummis has proposed a digital asset tax bill that includes a $300 de minimis exemption for small crypto transactions. That proposal excludes property held for income production, an exclusion that industry backers say would need adjustment to accommodate automated earnings from devices such as home batteries enrolled in virtual power plants.

The industry also seeks legal protection for noncustodial settlement platforms so software that orchestrates payments without holding customer funds would not be treated as a money transmitter in every state. The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, introduced by Senators Lummis and Ron Wyden, would exempt developers and infrastructure providers that do not control user funds from money-transmitter status. Senate materials for CLARITY include similar protections for software developers.

Stablecoin policy remains a major priority. The GENIUS Act established a federal framework for payment stablecoins. Industry participants say implementation should allow new entrants rather than favor large incumbents. The stablecoin market capitalization stood near $303.7 billion, and on Sept. 1, 21 financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citi and Deutsche Bank announced plans for a jointly owned dollar-pegged stablecoin targeted for early 2027. Bank for International Settlements chief Pablo Hernández de Cos has said stablecoins are not yet proven as large-scale payment tools and has pointed to tokenized deposits as an alternative.

Tokenized real-world assets tied to physical performance, such as renewable energy certificates and verified megawatt-hour receipts, had grown to nearly $39 billion as of Sept. 1. Advocates ask that such instruments be treated as commodities to make them easier to use in markets tied to physical outputs.

Supporters and opponents have outlined different scenarios for what happens after the Senate vote. Supporters say that if the Senate invokes cloture and CLARITY becomes law, Congress could move on to matters such as banking access, payment rails, tax treatment and noncustodial protections. If cloture fails or the bill stalls, industry groups plan to keep the focus on jurisdiction, asset classification and committee oversight in the months before the midterm elections.