Who's in Crypto's Corner?

Analysis of the crypto industry’s contributions to the House Committee on Ways & Means

In the past eighteen months or so of GOP ascendancy in Washington, crypto has been a regular feature of news reporting, particularly in relation to the Trump administration’s historic levels of corruption. It’s no surprise that a president who thinks he’s above the law is in bed with an industry with a similar outlook. Further proof of the so-called innovation empowering venal behavior has only minimally deterred Washington’s fulfillment of the crypto industry’s wish list. The GENIUS Act passed last year with bipartisan support. The Clarity Act made it out of committee last month after a pair of crypto-backed Democrats joined their Republican colleagues to vote “Yea.”

Next on the agenda is a series of tax bills, which would stipulate whether crypto is treated similarly to other financial instruments, or whether the industry’s deep pockets will win yet another round of policy carve outs. In a bid to exempt cryptocurrency transactions from established tax laws, crypto boosters are employing common industry talking points, like the shiny new thing defense, which asserts that digital assets are too ‘new’ to be governed by existing tax law, or the crypto for the workingman argument, which claims digital assets as an indispensable tool for economic mobility, rather than an opaque tool for billionaires to hide their wealth and speculate on future gains. 

The industry aims to secure a de minimis exemption on transactions and deferral on taxation of income earned from validating blockchain transactions, among other things. According to experts at the New York University Tax Law Center, a de minimis provision would privilege crypto over other assets. Additionally, allowing individuals who validate crypto transactions to defer tax payments would likely free them to escape tax liabilities indefinitely.  

There’s no doubt that a public jaded by the myriad ways wealthy individuals regularly evade accountability would prefer its representatives to prioritize closing the growing tax gap rather than enshrine new opportunities for billionaires and their pals to sidestep the rules the rest of us adhere to. 

Here’s a look at the Ways & Means Committee members who will decide whether crypto and its benefactors deserve special treatment. The report looks at the industry’s contributions to¹ and endorsements of various representatives. It also details various instances of members exalting the greatness of the latest industry to infect our politics.

Crypto Industry Contributions to Majority Members

Member	Industry Contributions for 2026 Election Cycle2	Industry Contributions for 2024 Election Cycle
Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO)	$105,168	$9,300
Adrian Smith (R-NE)	$282,9753	$0
Max Miller (R-OH)	$22,000	$19,100
Kevin Hern (R-OK)	$38,000	$0
Mike Carey (R-OH)	$33,250	$1,000
Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)	$11,195	$13,200
Darin LaHood (R-IL)	$9,000	$6,600
Greg Steube (R-FL)	$14,500	$0
Blake Moore (R-MN)	$0	$10,900
Claudia Tenney (R-NY)	$250	$9,400
Randy Feenstra (R-IA)	$0	$14,200
Beth Van Duyne (R-TX)	$1,150	$7,300
David Schweikert (R-AZ)	$667	$7,600
Carol Miller (R-WV)	$1,250	$0
Greg Murphy (R-NC)	$250	$0
Mike Kelly (R-PA)	$250	$0
Aaron Bean (R-FL)	$250	$0
Jodey Arrington (R-TX)	$0	$0
Ron Estes (R-KS)	$0	$0
Lloyd Smucker (R-PA)	$0	$0
David Kustoff (R-TN)	$0	$0
Vern Buchanan (R-FL)	$0	$0
Michelle Fischbach (R-MN)	$0	$0
Rudy Yakym (R-IN)	$0	$0
Nathaniel Moran (R-TX)	$0	$0

Crypto Industry Contributions to Minority Members

Member	Industry Contributions for 2026 Election Cycle4	Industry Contributions for 2024 Election Cycle
Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA)	$0	$0
Steven Horsford (D-NV)	$33,750	$1,902,2325
Thomas Suozzi (D-NY)	$26,000	$937,7766
Jimmy Gomez (D-CA)	$8,500	$516,3297
Mike Thompson (D-CA)	$47,003	$0
Brendan Boyle (D-PA)	$14,000	$8,300
Brad Scneider (D-IL)	$10,750	$8,300
Suzan DelBene (D-WA)	$4,500	$10,800
Jimmy Panetta (D-CA)	$8,500	$1,500
John Larson (D-CT)	$8,500	$0
Terri Sewell (D-AL)	$500	$250
Danny Davis (D-IL)	$0	$0
Linda Sánchez (D-CA)	$0	$0
Judy Chu (D-CA)	$0	$0
Gwen Moore (D-WI)	$0	$0
Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)	$0	$0
Don Beyer (D-VA)	$0	$0
Dwight Evans (D-PA)	$0	$0

The Major Recipients 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, recipients of crypto industry contributions have all been assigned an “A” grade by Stand for Crypto, a Coinbase-backed pro-industry advocacy group. The grade reflects recipients’ strong support for the industry. Indeed, recipients all consistently voted in favor of the GENIUS Act and the pending Clarity Act. 

In addition to championing crypto-friendly legislation, recipients have publicly touted their support for the industry. For example, in a July 16, 2025 post on X (formerly Twitter), Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-MO) quoted Summer Mersinger’s testimony from a Ways & Means Committee hearing on digital asset policy that day. Mersinger, who’s the CEO of Blockchain Association, a leading crypto lobbying group, claimed that “The current tax treatment of digital assets is complex; it’s burdensome; and it’s costly.” In his post, Smith went on to say that at the hearing, he “heard how the United States needs to act to ensure we are the crypto capital of the world” and that “More tax certainty will encourage growth and investment in the crypto economy, creating good-paying jobs for Americans.” However, rather than stimulate job growth, crypto has “resulted in troubling pollution and energy costs for communities, failed business projects, and an outbreak of scams and hacks.” 

But you won’t find Smith admitting this any time soon. In fact, just two months after agreeing with Mersinger, his campaign pocketed $6,000 from Blockchain Association, including $3,500 from Mersinger herself. This is in addition to other contributions he has received from Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase, DRW Trading, Solana Foundation, Solana Labs, and Solana Policy Institute.⁸

Members on the other side of the political aisle have also publicly sung their praises of the industry. In a 2022 press release announcing legislation to eliminate taxes on certain personal transactions made with crypto, representative Suzan DelBene (D-WA) said: “[V]irtual currency has evolved rapidly in the past few years with more opportunities to use it in our everyday lives. The U.S. must stay on top of these changes and ensure that our tax code evolves with our use of virtual currency.” DelBene has been backed by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase, Solana Policy Institute, and Stripe.⁹        

Steven Horsford (D-NV) is the top recipient of crypto contributions among Democrats on the committee, with close to $2 million in donations made since 2023. In addition to sporting a mostly crypto-friendly voting record, Horsford also recently cosponsored the Digital Asset Parity Act in May. According to Americans for Tax Fairness, the act aims to create new “tax evasion schemes for billionaires.” However, this hasn’t stopped Horsford from supporting it using common industry talking points; on X, he claimed the bill will create “clearer rules” and modernize the tax code “for the digital age” to help working families. Horsford made a similar argument earlier in the month too, when he spoke at Consensus, the world’s premier conference on digital assets hosted by CoinDesk.

Even members that haven’t been bankrolled by the industry to date have shown their support for crypto, likely to curry favor with the industry for future contributions. Namely, non-recipients Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Jodey Arrington (R-TX), Ron Estes (R-KS), Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), David Kustoff (R-TN), Michelle Fischbach (R-MN), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Rudy Yakym (R-IN), and Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) have all been similarly assigned an “A” grade by Stand for Crypto for “strongly” supporting crypto based on their pro-crypto voting record and statements. Meanwhile, representative Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) has received a “B” grade for her past “somewhat pro-crypto” statements.   

The pdf linked here and embedded below provides a detailed breakdown of contributions to each member of the House Ways & Means Committee, and pro-crypto positions taken by committee members.

1. Unless otherwise noted, the contributions reflected in the tables below represent the sum total of contributions to a Ways & Means committee member’s principal campaign committee plus contributions to joint fundraising committees that list the committee member’s principal campaign committee as a participant during the applicable election cycle. ↩︎
2. As of June 5, 2026 ↩︎
3. This figure reflects independent expenditures by the crypto industry on Adrian Smith. ↩︎
4. As of June 5, 2026 ↩︎
5. This figure includes independent expenditures by the crypto industry on Steven Horsford. ↩︎
6. This figure includes independent expenditures by the crypto industry on Thomas Suozzi. ↩︎
7. This figure includes independent expenditures by the crypto industry on Jimmy Gomez. ↩︎
8. i.e., by individuals or PACs associated with these companies ↩︎
9. i.e., by individuals or PACs associated with these companies ↩︎

** A previous version of this report erroneously excluded independent expenditures on behalf Steven Horsford, Thomas Suozzi, and Jimmy Gomez.