Episode Summary
Executive Summary: Coinbase policy leaders Faryar Shirazad and Kara Calvert argue that crypto’s 2024 election success came from combining grassroots mobilization with unprecedented issue-based spending through Fairshake and Stand with Crypto. They say the industry changed Washington’s incentives, helped elect pro-crypto lawmakers across parties, and now has momentum for market structure, stablecoin, debanking, and SEC reform under a new administration.
Main Topics: Crypto’s 2024 election strategy (Priority: 5/5): The guests frame the election as a vindication of Coinbase and the broader industry’s long-term political organizing, combining customer activation, advocacy, and spending to influence congressional races. Fairshake vs. Stand with Crypto (Priority: 5/5): They explain Fairshake as the super PAC doing candidate-focused independent expenditures and Stand with Crypto as the grassroots organization mobilizing voters and advocates across the country. Why Congress was the main target (Priority: 5/5): The discussion emphasizes that legislation and regulatory clarity must come from Congress, so crypto focused resources on House and Senate races rather than the presidential contest. Pushback against regulators and debanking (Priority: 4/5): They argue the industry was unfairly targeted by the Biden-era SEC and bank regulators, and that political spending was necessary to stop crypto from being pushed offshore. Future of crypto legislation and policy (Priority: 5/5): They identify market structure, stablecoin legislation, debanking, DeFi, and self-custody/privacy as key priorities for the incoming administration and Congress. SEC transition and Gary Gensler’s legacy (Priority: 4/5): They sharply criticize Gensler’s enforcement-first approach and discuss what could happen to pending SEC cases, Wells notices, and agency policy after he leaves. Broader political realignment and prediction markets (Priority: 3/5): They reflect on the apparent shift of Silicon Valley and parts of the crypto community toward Republicans, and note that prediction markets like Polymarket gained credibility during the election.
Key Arguments: Crypto won influence by organizing both money and voters; the most effective tactic was bringing real constituents before lawmakers, not just lobbying with industry arguments. Fairshake’s nonpartisan, pro-crypto mission let it support Democrats or Republicans based on policy positions, which helped it win most of the races it touched. Congress, not the presidency, is the critical venue for durable crypto policy because legislation must survive multiple administrations. The industry was being politicized and demagogued by regulators and some politicians, so responding with politics was the only viable defense. Crypto should be treated as a strategic technology similar to 5G and semiconductors: if the U.S. does not provide clarity, innovation and developers will move abroad. A future SEC chair should restore rule-of-law norms, coordinate better with the CFTC, and use existing authority to modernize markets rather than wage political battles. DeFi should be regulated cautiously and differently from custodial exchanges; technology-neutral legislation should avoid regulating protocols too early. Self-custody and privacy are core principles of a decentralized financial system and should be protected in future policy debates.
Data Points: Fairshake donations: About $170 million (with a reported $204 million / $178 million figure discussed as overstated due to FEC recording quirks) - Funding raised by the crypto super PAC during the 2024 cycle Stand with Crypto advocates: About 1.9 million - Grassroots crypto advocates mobilized by the separate 501(c)(4) organization Early Crypto 435 signups: 25,000 - Initial Coinbase grassroots effort announced in March of the prior year Overall crypto-ownership figure cited: 52 million Americans - Used repeatedly to show the size of the crypto voting bloc Nearly 2 million Americans raised their hand: Nearly 2 million - Another reference to the number of people who signed up with Stand with Crypto Fairshake record: 50 wins, 4 losses - Current election record cited on-air, with several races still uncalled Alternative Fairshake record cited: 54 wins, 4 losses - Referenced as a Wall Street Journal tally of supported candidates Reported House/Senate win breakdown: 44 House wins, 6 Senate wins - Kara Calvert’s on-air tally of Fairshake’s victories Races still uncalled: 8 - Kara noted remaining races had not yet been officially called Fairshake races engaged: About 55-56 races - Estimated total number of contests Fairshake weighed into across the cycle General election Senate races: 3 - Number of Senate races Fairshake engaged in late in the cycle General election House races: 18 - Number of House races Fairshake engaged in late in the cycle Sherrod Brown spending: About $40 million - Amount Fairshake reportedly put into the Ohio Senate race Blockchain software developer share: Down from about 40% to the mid-to-low 20s - Electric Capital survey cited to show U.S. decline in crypto developer activity Future Stand with Crypto target: 4 million advocates - Projected growth goal mentioned by the guests Donors to Fairshake: At least 24 donors - Suggested the PAC was broader than just Coinbase, Ripple, and a16z Duration of Coinbase policy effort: A decade - How long they said Coinbase had been building policy infrastructure Sherrod Brown tenure: 17 years - Used to underscore the significance of unseating him House members engaged before FIT21 vote: 40 or 50 - Constituents were brought to members before the House vote, and all those votes were reportedly secured
Pivotal Quotes: "The battle that was in front of us was a political one. And the only way we were going to take the politics out of crypto was to build the largest political operation any industry has ever built and respond to the politics with politics." — Faryar Shirazad: Explaining why the industry spent heavily and organized politically against anti-crypto attacks "It all starts with sort of simple beginnings, but it was a vindication of the time and effort we put into kind of launching our own grassroots effort and then ultimately supporting Stand with Crypto with the work that they've done." — Faryar Shirazad: Reflecting on the growth from early customer signups to nearly 2 million advocates "We just need to do what we need to do to make sure that the 50 million Americans who own crypto aren't punished for it." — Faryar Shirazad: Describing the industry’s rationale for aggressive political engagement
Implications: Crypto now has real electoral leverage and can shape policy debates in Congress. The next fights are market structure, stablecoins, debanking, and SEC reform, with DeFi and privacy likely to become the next frontier.