TLDR
- Democrats won control of both the House and Senate, and the new Congress takes office in January.
- Rep. Robert Garcia told the Trump family to “lawyer up” as Democrats plan oversight probes.
- TD Cowen expects Democrats to investigate Trump-family-run World Liberty Financial.
- Pro-crypto PACs reportedly spent over $60 million in Ohio, but Sherrod Brown still won.
- TD Cowen says the Clarity Act is unlikely to advance in the next two years.
Democrats won control of both the House and Senate on Tuesday, ending two years of a friendly climate for crypto in Washington. Lawmakers are now signaling investigations into President Donald Trump’s crypto ventures and into tech leaders close to him.
The new Congress takes office in January. Democrats have already said oversight will be a top priority.
Crypto advocacy group Stand With Crypto said 19 pro-crypto senators and 226 pro-crypto House members were elected. It also counted 8 anti-crypto senators and 106 anti-crypto House members.
Oversight Plans Take Shape
Rep. Robert Garcia, the expected incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, said he plans to take on “the Trump Crime Family” and corporate corruption. He added a two-word warning: “Lawyer up.”
“The president himself has a crypto scheme where he’s making billions of dollars,” Garcia said at a press conference on Wednesday. During the campaign, Democrats including Virginia Sen. Mark Warner pointed to Trump’s memecoin earnings.
TD Cowen’s Washington Research Group, led by managing director Jaret Seiberg, expects probes into Trump-family-run World Liberty Financial. “Democrats will investigate Trump’s crypto entanglements, including World Liberty Financial,” Seiberg wrote in a note on Wednesday.
Sen. Ed Markey said Big Tech executives should expect a wave of subpoenas. Punchbowl News reported that Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang could face scrutiny, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei named as potential witnesses.
Andreja Cobeljic, head of derivatives trading at AMINA Bank, said the lame-duck period is being watched closely. Cointelegraph reported that Trump-linked tokens led crypto losses after the results.
The Ohio Loss and the Clarity Act
The crypto industry’s biggest bet was the Ohio Senate race. Pro-crypto PACs reportedly spent over $60 million against Democrat Sherrod Brown, who defeated Republican Sen. Jon Husted.
Brown is a former chair of the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees digital assets, and has been viewed as critical of crypto. Because he won a special election for Vice President JD Vance’s former seat, he could return as early as Dec. 15.
Crypto PAC Fairshake spent $154.5 million across the primaries and general election, including over $13.5 million backing Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts in Nebraska. Crypto PACs overall spent $170 million on the midterms, according to Fortune.
Fairshake spokesperson Geoff Vetter said the group “played a meaningful role in winning competitive races” and will be active again in 2028. One industry source questioned the Ohio spending, saying the money “could have been better spent on shoe-leather lobbying.”
That source pointed to the Clarity Act, broad crypto legislation that passed the House but stalled in the Senate in September. TD Cowen said the bill is unlikely to advance in the next two years given Brown’s win.
Kara Calvert, vice president of U.S. policy at Coinbase, said on X that there “will be headwinds for any bipartisan legislation next year.” She added that “crypto is 100% bipartisan.”
Kevin Wysocki, head of policy at Anchorage Digital, said many new members are open to crypto. He expects Congress to focus on taxes and security, following a Binance hack of over $6 billion days before the election, the largest crypto hack on record.
House Judiciary Democrats published a staff report in November 2025 alleging Trump used the presidency to enrich his family through crypto ventures. The committee’s Democrats have now begun advertising counsel and investigations staff roles for the next Congress.
