| Crypto is all over the news today, with the price of Bitcoin soaring along with hopes for crypto's resurgence in a new Trump administration. As Biz Carson writes in today's newsletter, an election run like none other set off those good vibes. Plus: A crypto fortune funds cutting-edge brain research, and writer, historian and basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shares his thoughts on the presidential election. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up. 48-0. That's the record of the cryptocurrency industry (so far) in this election cycle after its political action committee, Fairshake, became the largest single-issue PAC in history and spent $135 million on a slate of candidates on both sides of the aisle. Yet you wouldn't necessarily know who was responsible for all of that media—because Fairshake's advertising never really mentioned crypto at all. Contrast Elon Musk's approach—appearing on stage with Donald Trump, posting about him nonstop—with that of the crypto industry. Both spent a similar amount in this year's election. But crypto's strategy was simple: It doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat, you're either with us or against us. Then it lined up its money cannon and started deploying millions in dozens of races. In the Ohio Senate race, a Fairshake-affiliated PAC spent more than $40 million to support Republican Bernie Moreno, a blockchain entrepreneur, who knocked down Senate banking chair and enemy of crypto, Sherrod Brown, and flipped the seat. In Michigan, another PAC spent $10 million to support Democrat Elissa Slotkin in her Senate bid after she had voted for some pro-crypto bills in her time in the House. She won, too.  Moreno defeated Brown, who'd served in the US Senate since 2007. Photographer: Daniel Lozada/Bloomberg Now the question is whether other companies will follow crypto's playbook of being deep-pocketed yet downplaying their actual corporate interests. "They've gone out of their way to avoid being ideological in terms of explaining what the mission of their super PACs is," says Rick Claypool, a research director at Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy nonprofit. "This is a huge 'corporate money in politics' problem that the crypto sector is exploiting in ways we haven't seen before." How the money translates into legislative votes may determine the answer. Already some political strategists are grumbling that the crypto industry is nothing more than a campaign ATM that won't be able to hold sway when it matters. But there are other crypto-backed groups, such as Stand With Crypto and the Cedar Innovation Foundation, who claim they're ready to take the baton and keep pushing the crypto agenda forward. All their wins could be "wasted if Congress doesn't pass clear and responsible regulation to protect consumers and spur innovation, and if the president-elect doesn't dismiss Gary Gensler and appoint a new chair to the SEC," the Cedar Innovation Foundation said in a statement. Crypto might be a new player in politics, lacking the deep relationships with Washington players that other industries possess. But unfortunately for Gensler, the crypto industry's track record against its perceived enemies is pretty good. | 
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