Trump and Republicans Win Majority for Crypto Regulations
Republicans won a majority in the House of Representatives, paving the way for comprehensive crypto legislation when Congress reconvenes next year.
The Republican Party will hold the US House of Representatives for the next two years, raising hopes for a comprehensive crypto bill in the next Congress while securing a Republican triple victory for at least two years.
Republicans had already won the White House with the re-election of Donald Trump and gained a majority in the upper house of Congress, taking several Senate seats in last week’s election. The Associated Press reported the party had won at least 218 seats late Wednesday.
The House of Representatives has been the legislative body that has passed most crypto laws at the federal level, especially in the last year, after a series of crypto-focused bills were passed by a majority of 435 lawmakers.
Republicans held a slim majority in the House of Representatives at the time, but Democrats were expected to take it over in the 2024 elections.
But Republicans won it with the election of Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, giving the party enough seats for a majority. Republicans are currently ahead in several races as of press time and could hold as many as 222 seats if current results hold.
The party will lose some lawmakers when Trump appoints Reps. Matt Gaetz, Elise Stefanik and Mike Waltz to executive branch posts, which will require their resignations. Trump has said Gaetz will run for Chief of Staff, and Gaetz has already submitted a resignation letter “effective immediately.”
The Fairshake super political action committee and its affiliated PACs provided financial support to nearly 60 Representative and Senate candidates in the 2024 elections, with the vast majority of them winning their races.
Fairshake supported its candidates in primary elections, mostly in safe districts, thus enabling the candidates they supported to win comfortably in the general election.
Several races in which their candidates failed include a Republican defeating Democrat Yadira Caraveio in Colorado and a Democrat defeating Republican Mike Garcia in California.
Fairshake trailed candidates he supported in at least two other races, but PACs racked up more than 50 victories, perhaps the most notable in the Senate race in Ohio. Sen. Sherrod Brown lost to car dealer and entrepreneur Bernie Moreno, who received $40 million in support from Fairshake.
Retired Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) was the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and spearheaded the passage of market structure legislation known as the Financial Innovation and Technology Act (FIT21), which defines how different crypto assets will be regulated by U.S. agencies.
The House of Representatives also passed a reversal of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Staff Accounting Statement 121, a controversial policy that dictates how financial institutions that hold digital assets on behalf of customers must report.
The SAB 121 solution passed the Senate but was vetoed by President Joe Biden. The FIT21 law was not put to vote in the Senate.
California Democrat Maxine Waters remains the ranking member of the Financial Services Committee, but Republicans must choose the name to lead their group on the committee. Reps. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), French Hill (R-Ark.) and Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) are among those running for the role.
Waters had been working on a stablecoin bill for the past few years with Patrick McHenry, who retired as committee chairman. It is unclear whether this legislation will be reintroduced in the interim session later this year or introduced next year while the new Congress is in office.