Crypto industry gave $8 million to Clarity Act lobbyists who didn't close the deal
In this news:
Key takeaways
- Coinbase spent enough to rank in the top ten for securities and investment lobbying.
- Four digital asset firms each spent over one million dollars influencing crypto topics.
- Checkmate Government Relations and Sternhell Group were among the top recipient lobbying shops.
Coinbase spent enough to make the top-ten in the overall category of securities and investment lobbying, according to OpenSecrets.org, above even Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Andreessen Horowitz.
In U.S. law, lobbying must be legally disclosed through federal filings though plenty of soft lobbying happens around the edges at parties and other events. CoinDesk's review focused only on the first two quarters of the year the most recent filings available, and nothing from 2025, which was also busy with crypto policy efforts.
Digital asset firms leading lobbying spending
Looking at the overall field of lobbying that didn't explicitly flag the Clarity Act, four digital asset firms cleared the million-dollar threshold influencing crypto topics, including leader Coinbase, followed by $1.5 million from a16z, $1.4 million from Binance all on outside lobbyists and Crypto.com, which spent $1.2 million.
Industry companies and trade groups typically devoted the majority of their individual spending on their own lobbyist employees. When they sent checks to professional influence shops, that money scattered far and wide to at least 42 distinct lobbying shops though there were some firms that drew quite a bit more than others.
Top lobbying shops and firms
Checkmate Government Relations took in about $1.8 million in crypto-related money in the first six months of 2026 most of that from Binance. The North Carolina operation is a relatively recent entrant into the lobbying field, though its client base is an epic list of corporate interests, including healthcare, technology, financial firms, tobacco companies and a major firearms manufacturer, and the firm is strongly associated with Republican interests and the administration of President Donald Trump.
Another of the industry's favorites is Sternhell Group, run by Capitol Hill veteran Alex Sternhell. His firm took in $660,000 from digital assets names in those two quarters, and three of his four most lucrative lobbying clients came from crypto, according to the filings.
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