Foreign media: The crypto industry has already spent $8 million on lobbying this year, but the Clarity Act still hasn't passed.

TechFlow Digest: After dissecting federal lobbying disclosures, CoinDesk found that out of the crypto industry's more than $13 million in lobbying expenditures in the first half of the year, roughly $8 million was tied to the market structure legislation Clarity—funds were deployed, yet the Senate still fell short of passage. For COIN and the wider compliance narrative, this serves as a reality check for the adage that “Washington is a long game.”

In the first half of the year, the crypto industry invested millions of dollars into lobbying, most of which targeted U.S. market structure legislation, but failed to reach its originally intended destination.

The crypto circle has long been notorious for campaign financing and sustains a host of expensive advocacy groups; yet this year, it also attempted to leverage nearly $8 million in direct lobbying toward a core objective—a law regulating the U.S. digital asset market.

In the first half of 2026, as the U.S. Senate advanced the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, lobbyists hired by the industry flocked to Capitol Hill. Approximately half of the registered lobbyists are internal employees of crypto companies, while the rest come from external lobbying firms or industry associations. This expensive cohort has yet to accomplish its mission.

After analyzing federal lobbying disclosures, CoinDesk found that the industry spent more than $13 million on lobbying during these six months. Of that amount, approximately $8 million is tied to congressional market structure legislation, though the documents do not specify how much attention from the same pool of expenses was directed toward other issues potentially advancing in parallel.

This does not refer to the crypto circle's over $100 million in campaign contributions used to elect friendly politicians to Congress, nor does it account for the tens of millions the industry annually funnels to advocacy groups like the Digital Chamber, Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation, and others (even though some dues from those organizations indeed flow toward the same cause). This is a different form of "hard lobbying": narrowly defined professional lobbyists representing clients in meetings with federal officials who draft legislation and policy.

In pushing for Clarity, the industry spent roughly $2.4 million hiring "gun for hire" third-party lobbying firms—full-time operators who roam the corridors of power advocating for whoever pays; an additional $2.1 million sustained in-house lobbyists for industry associations. The remaining portion of the $8 million funded the influence teams at various crypto companies themselves.

Lobbying actions and objectives are not always clearly spelled out in disclosures, but among those reviewed by CoinDesk related to this $8 million legislative push, at least some reference the congressional effort to establish an oversight framework for crypto in the U.S. The remaining approximately $5.4 million (disclosures do not explicitly link them to Clarity) may also have been partially spent on the same goal, albeit described with vague phrasing like "crypto-related issues" or "financial services." Some funds point more specifically to influencing tax policy, digital mining topics, or presenting the industry's stance to U.S. regulators drafting crypto rules.

Taking CCI as an example, the organization's $610,000 in lobbying is described as covering a range of topics including "taxes, GENIUS Act implementation, combating illicit finance, anti-money laundering requirements, and market structure."

Blockchain Association Chief Policy Officer Lindsay Fraser stated in a declaration that the association's lobbying included over 380 meetings with congressional staff and federal officials; members "joined us for five Washington fly-ins and 15 briefings on market structure, DeFi, tax policy, national security, and more."

Coinbase's Spending

To get Clarity across the finish line, Coinbase spent approximately $2.2 million on lobbying encompassing the bill's advocacy, and Kraken nearly $1 million, according to their respective disclosures. Other major spenders on the bill include Digital Currency Group, Jump Crypto, and Paradigm.

Has lobbying effectively killed Clarity, or is there still room to tally the results?

"We are proud of the results achieved by Coinbase's in-house team and outside counsel," said Coinbase spokesperson Julia Krieger, noting that as the single largest payer in crypto lobbying expenses, the company "helped drive comprehensive, bipartisan market structure legislation to the brink of passage and laid the groundwork for regulatory action"—actions currently being advanced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

According to OpenSecrets.org data, Coinbase's expenditure is sufficient to crack the top ten in the entire "Securities & Investment" lobbying category, even surpassing Goldman Sachs Group and Andreessen Horowitz.

U.S. law requires lobbying to be logged through federal disclosure registrations (though soft lobbying at events like receptions remains rampant). CoinDesk's review only covers the first two quarters of this year—which correspond to the latest available disclosures—and does not encompass the equally busy 2025 crypto policy landscape.

Looking at the broader lobbying field not explicitly linked to Clarity: four digital asset firms crossed the million-dollar threshold on crypto-related topics, led by Coinbase, followed by a16z at $1.5 million, Binance at $1.4 million (all paid to outside firms), and Crypto.com at $1.2 million.

Industry companies and associations typically allocate the bulk of individual expenditures to in-house lobbyist staff. When they write checks to professional lobbying firms, the money is widely distributed—at least across 42 different agencies—but a few clearly command a larger share.

Checkmate Government Relations collected approximately $1.8 million in crypto-related funds in the first six months of 2026, mostly from Binance. This North Carolina-based firm is a relatively new player on the lobbying scene, yet its client roster spans healthcare, technology, finance, tobacco, and major firearms manufacturers, with close ties to Republican interests and the Trump administration.

Another favorite of the industry is the Sternhell Group, helmed by Capitol Hill veteran Alex Sternhell. Over these two quarters, he collected $660,000 from digital asset clients, three of his top four most lucrative lobbying accounts coming from crypto—according to disclosure files.

Neither Sternhell nor Checkmate responded to requests for comment regarding this year's crypto lobbying.

Among the external firms explicitly tied to the legislative battle, Michael Best Strategies, Goldstein Policy Solutions (which has since merged with Federal Hall Policy Advisors), and Phronesis DC each secured at least $200,000 in the first half of 2026.

Too Many Cooks?

During the Clarity negotiations, meetings with executive officials and lawmakers may have brought in large numbers of such lobbyists. Some insiders familiar with the talks previously worried that the industry would struggle to apply pressure in a unified direction.

Industry critics have also spotted blood in the water, including former SEC official Corey Frayer, now director of investor protection at U.S. PIRG. He noted seeing "very intense infighting within the sector, as well as a lack of cohesion across the industry regarding major policy decisions in the bill."

"Crypto companies often ignore advice from senior compliance personnel they've hired; they disregard recommendations from outside law firms; and it wouldn't surprise me if they ignore their extensive internal and external lobbyists as well, despite pouring money into them," Frayer said.

Yet lobbying is rarely black and white. Although the industry failed to persuade the U.S. Senate to pass Clarity—even optimists remain unsure whether there will be a second chance during the brief year-end "lame-duck" session—there are other developments worth noting.

The consolation prize for not securing new legislation is that the bill had never been pushed this far before, providing a foundation for the next round of efforts, particularly around the hard-won bipartisan consensus points. Moreover, more lawmakers today understand cryptocurrency better than they did last year.

As U.S. market regulators continue to roll out crypto policies—including proposing complex new rules—the lobbying grind persists; crypto lobbyists continue to frequent agency offices, just as they did when shuttling between the Senate chambers during the Clarity negotiations.

"After the Senate's vote on Clarity this month, we are taking stock of the situation to ensure our time and resources align with member priorities," Fraser of Blockchain Association said, adding that one area will be "deepening work with the SEC and CFTC."

As Coinbase's Krieger put it: "Washington is a long game."

Join the official Coincamps community:

X: https://x.com/coincamps

Telegram: https://t.me/coin_camps