Crypto’s $168 million election: 78 winners, 13 newcomers and one costly defeat

Crypto super PACs backed 78 candidates who have won seats in Congress. Just 13 of them will enter Congress for the first time. Most of the winning roster already has a record in Washington. It includes the author of the House's crypto market-regulation bill, five representatives moving to the Senate, and a senator who supported stablecoin legislation but helped stop the broader market bill from advancing.

The newcomers could change the direction of districts whose earlier representatives opposed those measures.

CryptoSlate's review follows $168 million in reported outside spending by five crypto-focused super PACs across the 2025-2026 election cycle. The total includes support for unsuccessful candidates and attacks on opponents.

Ohio alone absorbed $64 million in an effort to elect Jon Husted and defeat Sherrod Brown. Brown won. Those results leave the industry with experienced advocates and prospective allies, alongside expensive defeats and unresolved disagreements.

Understanding what it gained requires looking at the people behind the tally and the decisions they will face on exchanges, stablecoins, and taxes.

Of the 78 winners, 57 are returning to the same chamber, five are moving from the House to the Senate, and three are former members coming back. The 13 first-time entrants make up about one-sixth of the group. Much of the industry's successful electoral activity therefore preserved legislators with existing experience and positions.

The spending also reached most of these candidates well before November. Fifty received no supportive general-election spending from the five committees: 47 were backed only in 2026 primaries or runoffs, and three only in 2025 special elections.

Every first-time entrant received their support during a primary or runoff. These payments bought advertising and other election communications.

Under the Federal Election Commission's definition, independent expenditures advocate a candidate's election or defeat without coordination with the campaign or party. They are outside spending, rather than donations handed to candidates.

Backing someone in a primary can help determine which member of a party reaches the general election. That gives the committees an opportunity to influence the choices available in November, even when they spend nothing supporting the eventual nominee afterward.

Adrian Boafo and Jasmine Clark received the most support among the 13 first-time entrants: $5 million and $4 million, respectively, all from Protect Progress during their primaries. Together, they accounted for 67% of the $14 million spent supporting this newcomer group.

Their districts also offer a concrete way to assess what might change. Steny Hoyer, whom Boafo succeeds in Maryland's 5th District, voted against both the House's CLARITY market-structure bill and the GENIUS stablecoin bill in July 2025.

David Scott, who long represented Clark's Georgia district, voted against both as well. Boafo arrives with state legislation behind him. He sponsored Maryland's blockchain and digital-currency task force, established by a law approved in May. Its assignment is to study the technology's use and regulation, with recommendations due in October 2027.

He also sponsored a separate staking-services bill addressing restrictions and a securities exemption for qualifying services. The retrieved record shows a hearing, rather than enactment. His record gives the industry a reason to engage him on federal rules.

Clark's documented campaign commitments take a different form. Stand With Crypto's summary of her December 2025 questionnaire describes support for holding crypto in a personal wallet and for broad stablecoin availability.

The comparison with Scott requires one qualification: Everton Blair filled Scott's unexpired term after his death and is Clark's immediate predecessor. Scott's 2025 votes establish the district's earlier record on the two bills. They do not establish Blair's position or guarantee that Clark will vote differently on whatever text comes next. Both Boafo and Clark could change how their districts approach crypto legislation.

The largest spending effort in the review ended with the committees' preferred candidate losing. Defend American Jobs and Digital Freedom Fund reported $40 million supporting Husted and $24 million opposing Brown in Ohio's Senate election. Brown won.

The combined $64 million accounted for about 38% of the five-PAC total. It was almost as much as the approximately $64 million spent supporting all 78 eventual winners.

The Ohio figure combines support and opposition spending; the winners figure includes support only. Both come from the reconciled five-PAC ledger for the same cycle and cutoff.

The Ohio effort puts the long winners list in perspective: one defeat accounted for an extraordinary share of the money. Brown was also one of seven candidates who won despite opposition spending from these committees.

The incoming Congress will include lawmakers the industry supported and others it spent heavily trying to defeat.

The winners divide evenly between the parties: 39 Democrats and 39 Republicans.

Their distribution across the chambers is much less balanced. Seven of the eight Senate winners are Republicans, with Virginia's Mark Warner the only Democrat in that group.