Investigative work by the New York Times revealed that lawmakers in at least six states have worked directly with crypto lobbyists to draft favorable legislation. Some bills copy-paste wording directly from lobbyists’ proposals.

Why should we care?
Facing undetermined federal regulations, crypto companies have instead set their sights on state governments. They hope to eke out enough of a regulatory sandbox to eventually push the federal government to “catch up” with state-level realities, perhaps thinking that, if they grow large enough during this intermediate period, then they can become too big to fail. And the crypto industry is doing this at scale. At least 153 pieces of crypto-related legislation were in the works this year across 40 states and Puerto Rico. And the industry has deep pockets, too, pouring more than $140,000 per month into lobbyists for New York state alone. These efforts, if they succeed, may mean we’ll see more explicitly pro-crypto rhetoric coming from politicians—scaling upward, too, with governors joining the ranks of pro-crypto mayors like Miami’s Francis Suarez and NYC’s Eric Adams.