In just a year, the crypto industry went from pariah to power broker in Washington D.C. Boosted by a hefty war chest and bruising political tactics, companies like Coinbase and Ripple gained the support of President Trump, who repaid them by pushing through long-sought legislation for the sector. Key to those efforts was Kristin Smith, now head of the Solana Policy Institute and the featured guest on the latest episode of Fortune’s Crypto Playbook vodcast (available on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube).
In 2018, Smith helped create the Blockchain Association, the first major crypto trade group in D.C., long before most politicians even knew about Bitcoin. Over a roller-coaster seven years, she helped top industry firms convince lawmakers of the importance of the technology, even as the collapse of companies like Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX sparked regulatory backlash that turned crypto into a political target.
After the crypto industry spent over $200 million to elect pro-blockchain candidates, including Trump, the efforts paid off as the new administration revamped the government’s approach to oversight, cleaning house at agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and shepherding the Genius Act through Congress, which establishes guardrails for stablecoins.
Now, the priority for D.C. advocates like Smith is advancing an even more ambitious bill that would revamp how U.S. financial markets operate and are regulated. The House passed its own version, the Clarity Act, earlier this summer, with the Senate still deliberating.
While the Genius Act sailed through Congress with bipartisan support, the Clarity Act faces steeper odds, with Smith telling Fortune that she believes it has around a 60% chance of passing in the next year.
After the industry’s string of victories, including an executive order that established a strategic Bitcoin reserve, the looming question is whether D.C.’s new approach toward crypto will last. Lawmakers were on the verge of passing legislation in 2022 after all, before the FTX collapse spurred a crackdown from government agencies. Without the Clarity Act in place, blockchain firms are vulnerable to future administrations if prices crater again. Critics have argued that the rise of digital asset treasury companies around assets like Ethereum could put the industry on the verge of another bubble.
Smith argued that even in the absence of additional legislation, agencies like the SEC can still engage in rulemaking that will help solidify policy gains—a point accentuated in a recent speech by Chair Paul Atkins, where he unveiled “Project Crypto” to help facilitate new technology like tokenization and super apps. She’s still optimistic for another bill. “If the president wants something, and a bipartisan Congress wants something, and an industry wants something,” she told Fortune, “I think there’s a way to get it done.”
You can find the whole interview with Kristin Smith, as well as the first five episodes of Crypto Playbook, here.
