Political operatives working for the cryptocurrency industry will be on high alert now that Democrats appear to be all in on Sherrod Brown as the national party's candidate for Senate in Ohio.

Why it matters: With Brown as their pick, Democrats — already facing steep odds of retaking the Senate in 2026 — are squaring off against Fairshake, the crypto PAC that helped unseat the industry critic just a year ago.

• At the SALT Wyoming Blockchain Summit Tuesday, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) told the room, "Thank you to all y'all for getting rid of Sherrod Brown."
• Fairshake, the network of PACs that opposed Brown in 2024, has $140 million on hand to support pro-crypto candidates and — crucially, for Brown — oppose those that are seen as impediments.

Between the lines: The organization Stand With Crypto has ranked Brown as "strongly against crypto" based on his statements and actions in Congress.

• And his former position as chair of the Senate Banking Committee, from which he stonewalled industry-backed legislation, made him a target for Fairshake in the last election.

What he's saying: "Cryptocurrency is a part of America's economy," Brown said in a statement Tuesday sent by the campaign to Axios, in response to a request for an interview.

• "My goal is to make sure that as more people use cryptocurrency, it expands opportunity and lifts up Ohioans and they are not put at risk."
• The campaign did not respond to multiple requests to answer follow-up questions about whether his policy positions have shifted since his loss.

In addition, neither the Ohio Democratic Party nor the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee replied to a request for comment from Axios.

What they're saying: Brian Wright, a longtime Ohio-based political strategist serving as president of WrightPath Solutions, tells Axios that he can see why the party wants Brown.

• Over his 32 years in Congress, the last 18 spent in the Senate, Brown had been able to flip otherwise Republican counties with a pro-worker message, Wright explained, though it didn't work out as well in 2024.
• Still, even with millions spent against him, Brown only lost 46% to 50% a year ago.
• "Anything can really happen here, but is it a bad idea for him to run again? I don't think he was defeated soundly enough to say that," Wright says.

State of play: Party leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wants Brown.

• Schumer has been perplexing on crypto issues, acting as if pro-crypto legislation could pass in 2024, but also voting against the recently enacted stablecoin legislation, GENIUS.
• The Cook Political report favors Jon Husted in the Ohio race, the Republican incumbent appointed to fill Vice President JD Vance's vacated seat, and the larger map still favors Republicans going into 2026.

The bottom line: "I think we have a huge battle that's unfolding next year, and then we'll find out how Red or Blue Ohio is, or isn't," Wright says.

"I think there are very few, in my mind, tokens that are securities, but it depends on what's the package around it and how that's being sold."

Flashback: This is similar to how former SEC chair Jay Clayton described crypto tokens during his tenure, though in 2018 hardly anyone used tokens.

• Teams just sold them to raise money — which gets the SEC's attention.

The other side: The most recent SEC chair, Gary Gensler, took a different view, describing the tokens themselves as securities, inherently.

The bottom line: If you are selling laundromat tokens to raise money to buy washing machines, the SEC might like a word.

• But if you're selling them so people can wash their comforter in one of those huge front loaders you've got raring to go, that should be fine.

This would have been unthinkable just one year ago: Federal Reserve officials hobnobbed at a blockchain conference this week — one that featured Eric Trump as a speaker — championing the role of crypto in the payments and financial system.

What they're saying: "I am committed to changing our culture and attitude toward the adoption and integration of technology and new products and services," Michelle Bowman, recently elevated by Trump to serve as the Fed's regulatory chief, said at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium on Tuesday.

• "It is my belief that the Federal Reserve could benefit from further engagement with innovators in industry, particularly as there is increased convergence between the traditional financial sector and the digital asset ecosystem," Fed governor Christopher Waller said at the same conference yesterday.

Why it matters: The backdrop is impossible to ignore. The Trump-nominated officials, who both favored an interest rate cut last month, are among those cited as potential next Fed chairs.

• The administration's embrace of crypto has cleared the way for the Fed to follow suit.

Sign of the times: Bowman said that the Fed should allow staff to own digital assets — "I certainly wouldn't trust someone to teach me to ski if they'd never put on skis," she said.

The intrigue: The event, hosted in Jackson Hole every year, the same place and same week of the Fed's yearly monetary conference, never attracted such high-profile Fed officials.

• "Under the Biden administration, no Fed officials accepted the invitation last year," Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of Skybridge Capital, which hosted the event, told CNBC.
• Under Trump, four Fed officials attended, Scaramucci said.

💵 Details are still emerging about the stablecoin from giant wallet provider MetaMask. (DL News)

📁 From the "in retrospect, it was inevitable" file: Kanye West has launched a meme coin. (Decrypt)

🇦🇷 The judge in the controversial Libra meme coin case ordered $58 million in USDC unfrozen. (Decrypt)

🔎 Bonus: Researchers waded into the SEC filings of digital asset treasury companies and found some terms for management that investors might want to consider. (Bitmex)

"Almost a decade ago I was the Harvard economist that said that bitcoin was more likely to be worth $100 than 100K. What did I miss? I was far too optimistic about the US coming to its senses about sensible cryptocurrency regulation; why would policymakers want to facilitate tax evasion and illegal activities? Second, I did not appreciate how Bitcoin would compete with fiat currencies to serve as the transactions medium of choice in the twenty-trillion dollar global underground economy. This demand puts a floor on its price, as I discuss at length in my new book Our Dollar, Your Problem. Third, I did not anticipate a situation where regulators, and especially the regulator in chief, would be able to brazenly hold hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars in cryptocurrencies seemingly without consequence given the blatant conflict of interest."

My thought bubble: Fourth possibility — an ever-growing number of people want to hold bitcoins for legitimate reasons that aren't legible to even some well-informed researchers.

• Which doesn't make them illegitimate reasons.

Case in point: I don't understand why people watch livestreams of video games, but it's still a huge business. The fact that I don't get it doesn't matter.