The U.S. crypto industry spent roughly $8 million of a $13 million first-half lobbying budget on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which never advanced in the Senate, according to a CoinDesk review of federal lobbyist disclosures covering January through June 2026.

The exchange Coinbase, the single largest spender in the sector, accounted for about $2.2 million of that legislative push, with Kraken adding nearly $1 million and the Digital Currency Group, Jump Crypto and Paradigm rounding out the top contributors, the filings show.

What did the industry actually buy?

Federal lobbying disclosures list activity in broad categories and do not itemize individual meetings. Still, the $8 million figure captures only the portion of filings that explicitly referenced congressional work on a digital asset oversight regime.

The remaining $5.4 million, described in vaguer terms such as "issues relating to cryptocurrency" or "financial services," likely included additional Clarity-related work alongside advocacy on tax legislation, mining policy and the rule-writing underway at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

• Third-party firms: about $2.4 million across at least 42 outside lobbying shops.
• Trade association staff: about $2.1 million.
• In-house lobbyists: the balance, covering direct employees of crypto firms.

Who got the contracts?

Checkmate Government Relations, a North Carolina firm associated with Republican causes and the Trump administration, collected roughly $1.8 million in crypto-related fees during the period, most of it from Binance. Sternhell Group, a Capitol Hill veteran shop run by Alex Sternhell, took in $660,000, with three of his four largest clients coming from crypto.

Michael Best Strategies, Goldstein Policy Solutions (now merged with Federal Hall Policy Advisors) and Phronesis DC each cleared $200,000 for Clarity-related work. None of the three outside firms responded to requests for comment.

Did any firm move the needle?

"We're proud of what Coinbase's in-house team and outside advisers achieved," said Coinbase spokesperson Julia Krieger. The effort, she added, "helped bring comprehensive, bipartisan market structure legislation to the brink of passage, and laid the groundwork for regulatory action," now progressing at the SEC and CFTC.

Coinbase's spending was large enough to crack the top ten in the broader securities and investment lobbying category tracked by OpenSecrets.org, surpassing Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Andreessen Horowitz.

The Crypto Council for Innovation disclosed $610,000 in lobbying for "a range of topic areas including tax, GENIUS Act implementation, counter illicit finance, anti-money-laundering requirements and market structure."

Did the trade groups deliver?

The Blockchain Association logged more than 380 meetings with congressional staff and federal officials, according to Chief Policy Officer Lindsay Fraser. Members "joined us for five fly-ins and 15 staff briefings on market structure, DeFi, tax policy, national security and more," she said.

"Following this month's Senate vote on Clarity, we're taking stock of where things stand and making sure our time and resources line up with our members' priorities," Fraser added, noting that a next step is "deepening our work with the SEC and CFTC."

Why didn't $8 million work?

Critics say the industry's structure, not just its budget, was the problem. Corey Frayer, a former SEC official now director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America, pointed to coordination failures.

He observed "very big internal infighting and a lack of unification among the industry on significant policy decisions in the bill." Frayer added: "Crypto companies tend to ignore the advice of experienced compliance people that they hire; they ignore the advice of outside law firms; and I would not be surprised if they spent a lot of money on lobbyists, both internal and external, whose advice they ignore."

What is the regulatory fallback?

The Clarity Act had never progressed this far in Congress before, and its bipartisan compromises on key market structure questions could anchor a future effort. Crypto lobbyists have already shifted attention to the SEC and CFTC, where proposed rules on trading platforms, custody and token classifications are moving through the standard rulemaking process.

The industry's window for a lame-duck revival of the bill closes at the end of the 118th Congress in December 2026, after which any market structure legislation would have to restart in the next session.