Tomorrow is a big day for America, but what does it mean for crypto? Overall, the composition of the next Congress is expected to be younger and more Republican, two trends that favor a more crypto-friendly environment on Capitol Hill. But changes in control come with friction that could delay bipartisan efforts to regulate crypto at a time when the industry says it wants more clarity sooner. So, here’s what to look for on Tuesday, and what to expect after that. SENATE If Republicans take the upper chamber, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, one of the most outspoken crypto skeptics in Congress, will lose the chairmanship of the Banking Committee, with Tim Scott of South Carolina likely to replace him. As our colleagues at Morning Money noted on Friday , Scott is “a blank slate on crypto policy,” so his ascension would be a wild card. Meanwhile, Tuesday is expected to bring some young, new pro-crypto Republican faces to the Senate. In Ohio, J.D. Vance is favored to win the state’s open seat, while Blake Masters remains the underdog in Arizona. While the two Peter Thiel acolytes have gotten the most attention, their fellow millennial Katie Britt, who is expected to win the Alabama Senate race, has also embraced crypto . In North Carolina, Rep. Ted Budd is expected to win his Senate bid. His efforts in the House, like a bid to quash a measure that would have granted Treasury new powers over crypto, have won him favor from the industry. (And at 51, he, too, counts as young by the current standards of the Senate.) HOUSE If, as expected , Republicans win back the House, Patrick McHenry of Virginia is in line to take up the chairmanship of the Financial Service Committee, a prospect that has Wall Street rankled and the crypto industry salivating on account of his partiality to tech-driven upstarts. (For Pro s, POLITICO’s Sam Sutton has written more on this dynamic ). As recently as last month, McHenry has expressed his exasperation with the SEC’s regulation-by-enforcement approach to crypto, an industry bugbear , raising the prospect that he will haul agency chairman Gary Gensler before the committee to answer for it. When it comes to crypto and Republicans, though, there might be such a thing as too much winning. The industry is determined not to let the technology become a partisan issue, but a wave election could wipe out some House Dems, like Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, who have engaged on crypto regulation and now face competitive races. NEW YORK In the most important state for financial regulation, pro-crypto Republican Lee Zeldin has a chance at upsetting the incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul, who has not taken a firm stand for or against the industry. The state legislature passed a moratorium on crypto mining in June, but it has remained on Hochul’s desk, with its final fate unclear. At a debate last month , Hochul would not say whether she intends to sign it, while Zeldin said he would not sign a moratorium. But here, too, a Republican win would carry some risks for the industry. Perianne Boring, founder of the Digital Chamber of Commerce, a trade group, said the industry views Adrienne Harris, the current superintendent of the state’s Department of Financial Services, as deeply knowledgeable on crypto. She said a Zeldin win carries the risk he could install a new regulator who was less-versed in the ins and outs of the technology.
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