Bitcoin has taken Washington by storm – with an impressive financial power and strategic planning that no one saw coming. On election night, November 5th, Bitcoin enthusiasts, MAGA supporters, and the curious gathered at a small Bitcoin bar called PubKey in New York's Greenwich Village to follow the election results. On a digital display on the wall, the Bitcoin price flickered as it climbed past the $73,000 mark, while signs of a Donald Trump election victory grew stronger. The atmosphere? Electrifying – a surreal moment that could have been straight out of a script for the internet age.

A special sight was presented around 10:30 PM: An organizer of a Bitcoin meetup group loudly announced that Trump's chances of victory on the crypto betting platform Polymarket had now reached 88%. "Bitcoin is rising, man! Buy now before it hits the million mark!" he shouted to the crowd. Such a scene would have been unimaginable just a year ago, when the industry was reeling from a major crash and the legal proceedings against crypto legend Sam Bankman-Fried.

But then Brian Armstrong, the billionaire founder of Coinbase Global Inc., entered the scene with a bold plan. In September 2023, Armstrong presented his strategy at the Mainnet conference in New York to win over U.S. politics for the crypto world. His plan was simple yet ingenious: money. The crypto industry needs to increase its influence through massive donations, Armstrong said, to become a true political player. At least $50 million annually would need to flow to be on par with Wall Street and the oil industry. "Money moves things," Armstrong stated, explaining that his company would henceforth donate to the Political Action Committee "Fairshake.

This Appeal for Generosity Worked Wonders: In the 2024 elections, crypto companies raised over 200 million dollars, which they distributed to political candidates through Fairshake and other groups. Prominent crypto moguls like the Winklevoss twins and Kraken founder Jesse Powell also contributed, supporting Trump with at least 25 million dollars. And Trump? He suddenly switched to the crypto side. In a speech at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, he promised to make the USA the "crypto center of the world" and to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

The crowning highlight? Trump declared that he would fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler and replace him with someone more favorable to the crypto world. "If Bitcoin goes to the moon, then I want America to be the nation leading the way," Trump announced to cheers.

It may seem ironic that an industry once considered a counter-movement to government control now ties its fate to politicians. But the reality is that Bitcoin and others now embody less of rebellious visions and more of massive "crypto casinos." It's no longer about the freedom of currencies but rather about trading and speculating on invented coins whose values fluctuate wildly—a business that generates billions. For the SEC, which wants to control the industry, this resembles an attempt to regulate illegal gambling.

Fairshake, the industry's representative body, had also strategically supported the Republican Bernie Moreno, who ran against the Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio. Brown, a crypto-skeptic, lost, and thus control of the Senate went to the Republicans. In the days after the election, Fairshake proudly announced that 47 out of the 56 candidates they supported had won—a resounding slap in the face for the Democrats. Industry insiders like law professor Rohan Grey are already warning that the crypto industry's enormous spending on this election will deter the Democrats and signal to them not to seek the fight.

For the crypto world, the race for political influence has thus begun. The euphoria was palpable at the election party in PubKey: "It will be like the space race – other countries will try to buy as much as possible," enthused a guest with bright eyes.