I figured I’d share some quick thoughts on the election, through the lens of crypto and Coinbase’s mission of increasing economic freedom (we are very political on this one dimension).
This is how Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, started a long post on the X platform.
“No matter how you slice it, this election was a huge win for crypto.
1. Crypto supporting Bernie Moreno was the key factor in his victory over Sherrod Brown in Ohio. Sherrod was one of the most anti-crypto senators out there.
2. Crypto got the full throated support of the winning presidential candidate
3. The country fully repudiated the work of Senator Warren and Gary Gensler who tried for years to unlawfully kill our industry. They both should take their share of responsibility for the loss of their party (along with Biden and Harris for letting them run amuck).
4. This next congress will be the most pro-crypto congress ever. StandWithCrypto voters showed up in force to help elect pro-crypto candidates in almost every district on both sides of the aisle. (257 pro-crypto candidates elected in the House)
5. DC received a clear message that being anti-crypto is a good way to end your career, as it doesn’t represent the will of the voters, who are disaffected by the current financial system and want change.
There were many other factors in this election besides just crypto of course – Elon probably played the biggest role (him purchasing Twitter/X marked the turning point). And there were many others I won’t get into here.
But I think the biggest message we (the American citizens) sent to our government in this election is that we are not going to follow a path toward socialism, with ever larger, heavy-handed government, over-regulation, lawfare, massive printing of the dollar, and free handouts to try and buy votes while driving up the deficit. America is going to follow a path toward ECONOMIC FREEDOM which is our source of strength, based on limited government, rule of law, meritocracy, fiscal discipline, respecting the free market (not government) as the source of economic growth, celebrating science, technology, and BUILDERs as the source of civilizational progress, etc.
This should not be a partisan message. There are excellent pro-business, pro-technology champions on both sides of the aisle, and the crypto industry supported them on both sides. But this does not mean the support should be 50/50 as they were not evenly distributed in this election. I received many angry phone calls from people on the left who were upset that the industry’s efforts were not perfectly 50/50 or even in favor of the Democrats. What they refused to acknowledge was that more Republicans voted for the FIT21 bill in the House (by about a 3 to 1 margin), and the lawfare/attacks against crypto were coming from the D administration. Supporting a truly non-partisan PAC, which simply looked at the candidate’s position on crypto and economic freedom, not what party they belonged to, really broke people’s brains. If they were stuck in a partisan frame of mind, they simply could not comprehend why it wasn’t 50/50 or in support of their preferred party (or didn’t want to, as it didn’t serve their interests).
In any event, I’m proud that the crypto community took a truly principled, non-partisan approach, and my hope is that after this election we no longer see the imbalance. Crypto should be supported by both sides, as should any important new technology or industry that is driving American prosperity. Each side can support it with their own values. What we won’t tolerate are politicians trying to unlawfully destroy our industry, or take the rights of our customers away.
Finally, crypto is here to stay from a policy POV, and we’re going to keep showing up until we see sensible legislation passed which protects consumers, and the industry, from future attacks. We are going to see this industry be built in America. Coinbase and A16Z have contributed additional funding to Fairshake which already has about $78m to use in the 2026 midterms. StandWithCrypto, which currently has 1.9m advocates, has taken a stretch goal to get to 4m advocates by the 2026 midterms. They will also be expanding their efforts internationally, as we need to see similar rules in the G20 and beyond. Crypto will only be able to update the global financial system and increase economic freedom with broad global adoption.
I’m super proud of how far the crypto community has come. Now let’s get some sensible legislation passed in the U.S., and get back to building!”