Crypto’s Political Alignment Problem

A four-step playbook for surviving–and thriving–in a Democratic Washington.

Abram Smith is a founding team member of Greenbrier, TMG’s strategic communications arm, and leads the firm’s blockchain practice. His work in the crypto space, dating back to 2013, has taken him to nearly every corner of the industry, from pioneering payments infrastructure to leading wallets and exchanges, to ambitious startups aiming to disrupt global finance.

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In 2024, Donald Trump returned to office with a popular-vote victory, a governing trifecta, and a simple organizing principle: get on board or get run over. Every major company, every major university, and every public figure in America faced the same calculation–make a visible show of loyalty to Trump and the Republican Party, or risk becoming a target of the President’s legal, financial, or political wrath. And many chose to get on board. Apple announced a $500 billion investment in “American innovation,” big law firms pledged $1 billion in free work for the Administration, and several elite colleges paid the government tens of millions of dollars to get frozen federal research funding restored, to name just a few examples.

The crypto industry was an early author of this playbook. They curried favor with the President-to-be by pouring hundreds of millions into races during the 2024 election cycle, with the overwhelming majority going to Republicans. On the trail and in office, Trump grew to be a strong political ally to the industry–and a profiteer to boot: his family helped launch a DeFi venture, World Liberty Financial, and he and his wife launched a pair of personal meme coins, ventures that have collectively netted him close to $1 billion.

But two years later, many industries—few more than crypto—have overextended politically. The race back to the middle started yesterday.

A CoinDesk poll earlier this month found 62% of voters don’t trust Trump to oversee the crypto industry, a recent National Cryptocurrency Association poll found that consumer protection is still top of mind for voters, and a new HarrisX survey of registered voters found 70% believe the U.S. should have already passed clear crypto legislation. These are lines of attack that will carry considerable political weight should Democrats retake control of Congress and regain oversight authority. And as of this writing, Kalshi puts the odds of Democrats retaking this House this November at 74 percent, and the Senate at 44 percent.

Despite ongoing bipartisan efforts, their day of reckoning may soon be nigh–think Congressional hearings, intense oversight, invasive investigations, loud public shaming, and ensuing state-level enforcement actions, alongside sweeping future federal legislative and regulatory crackdowns. That would be an existential crisis for the industry, and it could be devastating for millions of people across the world who depend on crypto for financial freedom. So it is imperative that, over the next six months, the crypto industry starts overhauling its messaging, and makes sure its actions match its words.

At Greenbrier, I’ve spent more than a decade helping crypto and fintech clients devise and implement strategic communications and engagement strategies as they navigate complicated and rapidly evolving media and political environments. Now, in the run-up to Election Day 2026, I have a simple, four-step playbook for them:

Step #1: Pivot Your Messaging

Crypto’s original pitch was not a partisan one. Its foundational arguments—financial inclusion for the unbanked, freedom from extractive intermediaries, open infrastructure that no single institution could control—carried genuine appeal across the political spectrum, and early advocates made them to anyone who would listen. But that bipartisan instinct eroded slowly. The industry’s libertarian streak made it a natural fit for an anti-regulatory, anti-establishment Republican coalition that was happy to adopt it and reap the subsequent political gains. By 2024, the embrace was complete.

To navigate a change in congressional leadership effectively, crypto and fintech firms and their stakeholders need to return to those first messaging principles in both public forums and private engagements. The problems that the industry originally set out to solve have not gone away; these messages continue to hold genuine bipartisan appeal when they’re emphasized:

“Financial inclusion.” More than 6% of U.S. adults and more than a billion people worldwide lack access to a traditional bank account. Crypto and stablecoins offer a pathway for those individuals to store value, send money, and participate in the broader economy, all without requiring physical branch access or an established credit history. For immigrant families in the United States who regularly send remittances to relatives abroad, crypto-based transfer infrastructure can dramatically reduce the fees that wire services and money transfer operators extract from each transaction, putting more money in the pockets of working families rather than in the hands of financial intermediaries. And in countries where local currencies are subject to chronic inflation or outright collapse, like Argentina, Venezuela, or Zimbabwe, crypto and dollar-pegged stablecoins offer ordinary citizens a practical tool to protect their savings from being wiped out by forces beyond their control. For all of these communities, crypto can be a lifesaver; for Democrats working to eradicate poverty and inequality, crypto can be a vehicle for equity and economic access.

“Privacy.” The case for financial privacy in crypto is frequently mischaracterized by the press and misunderstood by the public. A privacy-based argument is not about enabling criminal activity; it’s about preserving civil liberties. In authoritarian countries, crypto gives dissidents and journalists a way to move money outside the reach of governments that would freeze their accounts. Closer to home, crypto could enable a woman to safely and securely pay for a health procedure out of state.

“Tax fairness.” Greater government engagement with the crypto sector would create meaningful opportunities to address longstanding tax compliance challenges, benefiting both the industry and government tax collectors. Stablecoins and programmable money make it technically feasible to embed tax obligations into transactions more seamlessly, reducing the evasion gap and creating a more equitable system.

“Consumer protection.” The crypto industry needs to reframe its relationship with regulation, treating it not as a threat to be minimized but as a mechanism for establishing legitimacy and long-term viability. A decade of crypto market development has demonstrated both the industry’s staying power and the consequences of inadequate oversight. Democrats and the industry share a common interest in establishing guardrails that protect consumers and create space for legitimate innovation to flourish.

Step #2: Distance Yourself From the Unsavory Stuff

Meme coins—digital assets with no underlying utility, backed by nothing more than hype and social media momentum—have become one of the industry’s most visible and damaging exports, routinely engineered to enrich early insiders before collapsing and wiping out retail investors who bought in late. A recent study from Solidus Labs found that 98.7% of tokens on Pump.fun and 93% of liquidity pools on Raydium have exhibited characteristics of pump-and-dump schemes or rug pulls. Meanwhile, crypto casinos and blockchain-based i-gaming platforms have exploded in the regulatory vacuum, offering products with minimal transparency, no consumer protections, and payout structures that would not survive scrutiny in any regulated gaming jurisdiction.

These schemes carry an outsized cultural footprint compared to the social and economic value they bring. They dominate headlines and social feeds, crowd out legitimate financial applications, and cement the impression amongst millions of casual observers that this is all crypto is, has been, and can be. It’s no wonder Democrats, by and large, have little patience for the crypto industry and a desire to make up for lost time as regulators. They will examine each of these more unsavory projects when they hold the Congressional gavel. Industry stakeholders should expect it, and they should not be surprised when the public is broadly receptive to that scrutiny.

The largest crypto firms need to be able to draw explicit distinctions between themselves and these unscrupulous elements of the industry. Bitcoin, with a market capitalization north of a trillion dollars and a growing institutional investor base, is a materially different asset class from a presidential meme coin. Ethereum, with its smart contract infrastructure supporting real financial applications, falls into a different category than an unregulated crypto casino. Properly regulated stablecoins represent a serious financial instrument with demonstrated real-world utility. Properly regulated exchanges—operating under AML and KYC requirements, subject to audit, and listed on public markets—are functioning financial infrastructure, not shadow venues for speculation. Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs are publicly traded, SEC-registered products held in millions of retirement and brokerage accounts.

This is where the overwhelming majority of crypto’s economic value resides. The smartest companies will say so explicitly, as they affirmatively distance themselves from the projects and practices that have provided the industry’s critics with their most effective material.

Step #3: Get Back to the Basics

A number of crypto companies and stakeholders are also increasingly engaged in extracurricular activities, fundraising, and partisan side quests that extend their identities, publicly and politically, beyond the single issue of crypto progress. To the public, they seem like the activities of an industry trading political contributions for regulatory forbearance. When they take power, Democrats will characterize it in precisely those terms.

The crypto and fintech industries need to draw a much clearer boundary around the scope of their political activity. Lobbying, public advocacy, campaign contributions, and coalition-building should be oriented toward issues directly and substantively related to the industry: market structure legislation, stablecoin regulatory frameworks, tax treatment of digital assets, consumer protection standards, and related matters.

In a polarized political environment, partisan opponents won’t get a seat at the lawmaking table–but trusted, bipartisan partners can earn one.

Step #4: Get Going

This is a significant legislative moment for the crypto industry. The Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act passed the House in July 2025 by a 294-134 bipartisan majority, and it’s headed to the Senate floor after the Banking Committee passed it 15-9, with some Democratic support. It now faces a 60-vote threshold that makes broader Democratic support a mathematical necessity.

Crypto and fintech stakeholders who engage with key Senators on the CLARITY Act should be working not only to ensure the CLARITY Act moves forward productively in the current Congress, but with the goal of beginning the sustained, longer-term work of establishing credibility with a bipartisan community of key lawmakers working in this space.

If Democrats indeed take back Congressional control in November, crypto executives who show up in Washington for the first time in December, with a newly moderated disposition, will be received accordingly—as advocates who will do or say whatever’s expedient to protect themselves and their wallets. They certainly won’t be viewed as potential long-term partners in shaping policy. That perception, once established, is difficult to undo. And it will risk ceding much of the crypto policymaking process to hostile forces, potentially setting the industry back years.

A Window of Opportunity

Crypto and fintech—when properly structured, with appropriate consumer protections and a coherent regulatory framework—represent one of the most significant opportunities in personal financial freedom ever. A well-regulated crypto and stablecoin ecosystem has the potential to meaningfully change that dynamic, expanding access to financial services, reducing the cost of cross-border payments, and creating infrastructure that makes tax compliance more seamless and equitable.

It’s a compelling policy vision, and it should attract genuine support across the political spectrum. But that requires the industry to make its case honestly, to acknowledge where things have gone wrong, to reorient itself more neutrally, and to engage with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle as legitimate policy partners.

Traditional financial institutions have maintained their standing with lawmakers across every political era by staying focused on policy, not partisanship, and by engaging seriously and consistently with members of both parties. If the crypto and fintech industries want to be taken with equivalent seriousness, they need to start conducting themselves accordingly. The window to establish that credibility, before a new Congress arrives with a mandate and a lengthy list of grievances, is narrowing. But it is open, right now.

To borrow from the old proverb: The worst time to start building credibility is in November, after the election results come in. The best time was years ago. The second-best time is today.