Crypto's $250 Million Midterm Bet Collapses as Sherrod Brown Wins and a House Crypto Chairman Loses His Seat

Crypto and AI super PACs poured roughly $250 million into the 2026 midterms trying to shape who writes the rules for their industries. According to researcher Molly White's Tech Influence Watch tracker, the side backed by that money lost nine of the twelve competitive races called so far, with $74.7 million landing on losing candidates against $28.3 million on winners.

A $64 MILLION LOSS IN OHIO

The single biggest casualty was Ohio's Senate race. The flagship crypto PAC Fairshake spent $56.5 million trying to keep Democrat Sherrod Brown out of his old seat, with the Winklevoss-backed Digital Freedom Fund adding another $7.5 million, more than a third of all crypto spending this cycle. Brown beat Republican incumbent Jon Husted anyway. Brown chaired the Senate Banking Committee before losing his seat in 2024 and was one of the industry's most persistent critics while he held the gavel.

THE HOUSE'S CRYPTO CHAIRMAN IS OUT

Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, who chaired the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence, lost his seat to Democrat Mitchell Berman. His defeat leaves the subcommittee without a chair heading into the new Congress, and since subcommittee jurisdiction and leadership reset each session, Democrats could rename, reshape or eliminate it entirely. Republican Bill Huizenga, who helped move the stablecoin bill Trump signed into law in 2025, also lost his seat.

Not every crypto-aligned bet failed. In Nebraska, Fairshake spent roughly $13.5 million backing Republican incumbent Pete Ricketts, a Senate Banking Committee member, who held off independent challenger Dan Osborn.

WARREN'S BANKING GAVEL AND THE TRUMP FAMILY QUESTION

With Democrats now controlling both chambers, Senator Elizabeth Warren, currently the Banking Committee's ranking member, is positioned to become its chair. Warren has long been one of the industry's sharpest critics, and her rise to the gavel is expected to bring closer scrutiny of bank capital rules, private credit and crypto. Reporting following the election also points to renewed congressional interest in the financial ties between crypto, Trump and his family, an area several Democrats have already flagged for investigation.

STAND WITH CRYPTO'S OWN SCORECARD

Stand With Crypto's election tracker, cited on the show, painted a different picture at the individual candidate level: by that count, 19 of 33 called Senate races and 225 of 394 called House races went to candidates the group rates as pro-crypto. That tally reflects how a candidate voted or campaigned on crypto issues rather than campaign spending, which is why it can show a pro-crypto majority in the same cycle where the industry's biggest-dollar bets failed. Stand With Crypto had not published a fully updated breakdown at the time of this writing, so the exact final counts should be treated as preliminary.

This story comes from the Simply Bitcoin Live show. Watch the full episode.