The Crypto Industry Spent Big This Election. Now Comes the Payoff.

You bet your bottom Satoshi they’re happy. 

Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election appears likely to send the cryptocurrency industry into a bonafide golden era. That’s big news for bitcoin holders, and at least one analyst sees a clear roadmap for the world’s preeminent crypto. 

All the Digital Money in the World

Make no mistake: 2024 marked the first true crypto election in American history. Pro-crypto PACs and affiliated groups raised more than $245 million this election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission data. That’s more than any other industry this year — and, at least in late August, accounted for nearly half of all corporate spending this election, according to corporate influence watchdog Public Citizen. (For reference: 17% of US adults say they have invested in, traded or used cryptocurrency, per Pew Research.) In fact, in the post-Citizens United era, only the fossil fuel industry has given more money to politics than crypto, Public Citizen found. Translation: The nascent industry is already an unparalleled political behemoth. 

While crypto industry money flowed to candidates on both sides of the aisle, funds from the three predominant crypto industry PACs went mostly to Republicans, according to the watchdog OpenSecrets. With the victors headed toward power, it’s safe to assume that the crypto industry will see progress on many of its policy goals:

• Chief among the crypto industry’s asks is a far lighter regulatory touch from its overseer, with aims to migrate government oversight from the Securities and Exchange Commission to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
• Trump, for his part, has shifted gears since claiming bitcoin was “based on thin air” in his first term, promising to oust SEC Commissioner Gary Gensler and make America “the crypto capital of the planet.” He’s also mentioned plans to amass a “strategic bitcoin reserve.”

Up, Up, and Away: Naturally, that’s all very good for bitcoin, which soared 9% overnight Tuesday to a new record of $75,361, according to CoinMarketCap, and passed Meta to become the world’s ninth-largest asset by market cap. Analysts at Bernstein Group project it could reach $90,000 by the end of the year, and $200,000 by the end of 2025.