Key Insights:
- The CLARITY Act stalled after a 49–50 Senate vote, short of the 60 votes required.
- Coinbase and major crypto groups cut Q3 lobbying but still spent over $4 million.
- Fairshake’s political spending continued as lobbying firms ended crypto contracts.
The groups still spent more than $4 million, according to Bloomberg Government’s analysis of new disclosures. The decline came during a quarter marked by the Senate’s September rejection of their leading legislative priority.
CLARITY Act Falls Short in Senate Vote
On September 15, 2026, the Senate rejected a motion to advance the legislation by a 49–50 vote. The measure needed 60 votes to clear cloture, the procedural requirement for advancing the motion.
Supporters finished 11 votes short of that threshold, preventing the measure from progressing to the next stage. The result left the industry’s central crypto regulation proposal stalled ahead of the midterm elections.
Republican Senators Jerry Moran, Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, and Thom Tillis voted against the motion.
Democrats also withheld support, following disagreements over ethics safeguards and the treatment of senior officials’ cryptocurrency profits. Provisions covering decentralized finance formed another point of contention during the legislative debate.
Banking groups, meanwhile, challenged the bill’s treatment of stablecoin rewards before senators took up the motion. They warned that the yield provisions could draw deposits away from banks. New York lawyers also publicly opposed the legislation in the days before the September vote.
Federal Lobbying Remains Above $4 Million
The quarterly pullback followed months of spending, during which companies and associations pressed lawmakers on crypto regulation. Coinbase spent roughly $2.2 million during the first half of 2026. That placed the exchange among Washington’s leading lobbying spenders in the securities and investment sector.
Kraken spent close to $1 million over the same six months as the industry pursued its legislative agenda. Across the broader sector, first-half spending on market-structure advocacy exceeded $8 million.
Companies and associations directed that money toward advancing the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, their principal legislative priority.
Bloomberg Government’s latest data covered Coinbase and several of the industry’s largest groups during the following three months. Their federal lobbying expenditures declined compared with the second quarter, while the campaign to advance the bill continued.
Even so, the combined total exceeded $4 million for a sixth consecutive quarter. The reporting period covered July through September, including the weeks before lawmakers rejected the motion.
Congressional Outreach Accompanies Political Spending
Beyond paid lobbying, the industry sought support through a campaign that brought its legislative demands directly to congressional offices.
Stand With Crypto generated nearly 50,000 congressional contacts, according to earlier reporting on the effort. That outreach accompanied the broader push to secure enough Senate support for the legislation.
Earlier coverage also cited a $190 million crypto political push surrounding the September confrontation over the CLARITY Act.
That figure concerned political spending, separate from the federal lobbying expenditures detailed in the quarterly disclosures. Congressional contacts, lobbying expenses, and political spending represented different parts of the industry’s effort to influence Washington.
Some outside lobbying firms also ended relationships with crypto clients during the third quarter, Bloomberg Government reported. Meanwhile, related political spending through groups including Fairshake remained active after the September procedural defeat.
Those outlays continued as the industry approached the midterm elections with its leading bill still stalled. They covered political activity outside direct federal lobbying expenses, which declined during the third quarter.
