WASHINGTON — The 2022 elections will test whether the cryptocurrency industry, now more than five times its value in late 2020 and fired up by a tax provision enacted in November, will boost spending on political campaigns.
Growing congressional and regulatory scrutiny of cryptocurrencies along with the sector’s exploding wealth have set the stage for greater involvement, but it remains to be seen whether political giving will keep pace. CQ Roll Call’s analysis of campaign donations found the spending across 12 organizations with industry ties is up from this point last cycle, though below the total ultimately spent in the 2020 election.
Democrats, who narrowly control the House and the evenly split Senate, have benefited more than Republicans from the industry’s largesse in the past. But some crypto advocates blame the party for a tax reporting provision in the infrastructure law that riled the industry.
