Politics wasn't exactly on the agenda at Consensus 2024, but it was everywhere at crypto's longest-running conference.

Why it matters: High off recent crypto wins on the Hill and wooing from likely GOP candidate former President Trump, the industry's flipped from defensive crouch to pushing back, and it's reignited energy (and a flow of money).

Behind the scenes: At Consensus, talk of legislation and elections was on the lips of industry players, it was palpable in and around the venue, and was even parked out front — an RV, endorsing long-shot independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was blasting country.

• 🎶 Do you want a man with spirit? Who's not afraid to fight. And whose record shows that he would fight for what is right.

Between the lines: Crypto will be a part of the 2024 presidential elections.

• Folks who spoke with Axios in Austin said they didn't see that coming last year, or, even a month ago.

State of play: Industry players are doubling down on donations to political action committees.

• Chris Dixon, who founded and leads Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z) crypto practice, announced an additional $25 million donation yesterday from the firm to the crypto super PAC Fairshake.
• Ripple also announced an additional $25 million donation this week.

Zoom in: FIT21, a broad crypto market bill that's passed both houses of Congress, is supported by some of the bigger companies in the industry including Coinbase and Kraken, though a quick scroll through social media shows general division on whether the bill makes sense as written.

• CoinFund president Chris Perkins said: "Anything that ends up getting done will be imperfect and people will be angry no matter what."
• In other words, some clarity is better than none.
• Critics of the bill, who requested anonymity, pointed to other crypto legislation they preferred like the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act sponsored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) as well as the updated bill from Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R- Wyo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D -NY).

Industry solidarity was in full view at Coin Center's 10th-anniversary dinner — the crowd booed mentions of SEC chair Gary Gensler, cheered the possibility of Elizabeth Warren losing her Senate seat, and toasted the recent surprise successes on the Hill.

• 🥂 Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) attributed the wins to a partnership between the industry and key leaders in Congress.

Erik Voorhees, founder of the ShapeShift exchange and industry OG, gave a more downbeat view in a keynote speech that stunned the room into silence.

• "Behold the standard bearers of our democracy, Joseph Biden Jr. and Donald. These two illustrious men have risen to prominence yet again, from our great nation of 350 million people," he said, referencing the presumptive major party nominees.
• "For who will we choose to lead us into spending the next $10 trillion, half of which will come out of the pockets of our own children?"

Meme coins inspired by former President Trump and his MAGA hat slid after a jury found him guilty on all 34 counts in his New York criminal trial.

• By the numbers: The trio fell between 3% and 26%, according to CoinGecko.

Flashback: Yesterday's Charted section featured one of the bigger Trump-inspired meme coins, MAGA, and its exponential rise since January.

• The dip in the minutes following the verdict put a small dent in that, and yet....

The latest: The Trump and Tremp coins are bouncing back this morning.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was answering questions from reporters during a media briefing at Consensus yesterday as the verdict in the Trump hush money case rolled in.

• A reporter asked for comment as the news broke.

What Kennedy said: At first, nothing.

• "I've been disciplined about not commenting on court cases and talking about issues that I think are of concern to Americans and not issues that you know, are being used to divide us... so I'm not going to comment on it," he said.

At the end of the briefing, reporters were told a statement would be out shortly:

• "The Democratic Party's strategy is to beat President Trump in the courtroom rather than the ballot box. This will backfire in November. Even worse, it is profoundly undemocratic," Kennedy's social media account said.

All eyes will be on President Biden on Monday — the deadline for a veto of the bill that would quash the SEC custody rule called SAB 121.

What we're watching: It can shake out in more ways than one.

• Biden could sign it, and we can all say "peace ✌️" to SAB 121.
• Biden could, as promised, veto the Congressional Review Act resolution that passed the House and the Senate with significant support from Democrats.
• He could do nothing, which would allow it to become law.

The intrigue: Possible outcomes imagined by others include:

• Biden vetoes the SAB 121 resolution, but the SEC doesn't enforce it.
• Biden vetoes, but the SEC puts out a new statement that renders the previously issued "guidance memo" moot.

💭 Our thought bubble: That last path seems likely, if only because it saves the Biden administration from having to walk back a vow to veto...during an election year where crypto is increasingly becoming a part of the conversation.

Many, many, many dudes hung out around the Ampera booth in the exhibit hall at Consensus 2024 for a chance to win a red Mustang.

• Ampera's a protocol built on Ethereum that creates letters of credit, guaranteeing the future receipt of an asset — a user would post collateral to secure the transfer of whatever to some other user.

How [the game] works: Everyone who tries to hang gets one ticket to be entered in a raffle to win the car, and the longer they hang, the more they earn.

• The record at the time was 1 minute 38 seconds.

💭 Our thought bubble: It seemed like the biggest guns 💪 would win, but not so — the trick to the game was grip (something Brady had guessed from just looking at the picture).

• That red bar swivels, so the enemy of the challenge was sweaty palms.
• Smarter ones caught on and changed their grip — one hand facing out, the other in.