Coinbase-Backed Crypto Advocacy Organization Unveils 2026 Election Plan

Stand With Crypto (SWC), the advocacy organization launched by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, said that its strategy for turning out crypto-minded voters in the 2026 US midterm elections will prioritize races in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

In a Thursday announcement, SWC said its November 2026 battleground races would include industry-supported candidates in Iowa, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, where “crypto voters represent a meaningful and potentially decisive share of the electorate.”

The advocacy group added that its priority for the midterms would be in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District, where the respective incumbents Democrat Marcy Kaptur and Republican Scott Perry “have concerning records on crypto policy.” Perry voted against the GENIUS Act in 2025, while Kaptur voted against the payment stablecoins bill and the CLARITY market structure bill.

Stand With Crypto said it would use an “aggressive, get-out-the-vote effort” with its advocates, including “paid media campaigns across digital and direct mail, targeted SMS outreach, and robust digital organizing through email and social platforms” as well as groundwork to turn out crypto voters. The group’s platform includes information on candidates’ positions on crypto policy based on their public statements, voting records and their responses to the organization’s questionnaire. 

Launched in 2023 as part of an effort to “unite global crypto advocates,” SWC is one of several crypto-affiliated organizations expected to influence voters in 2026. The group reported about 270 “pro-crypto” candidates won seats in the US House of Representatives and Senate in 2024, with many of the same candidates up for reelection this year.

Related: Crypto-backed PAC spends $8.6M in Illinois races ahead of US midterms

Stand With Crypto said in November 2025 that how US lawmakers vote on a crypto market structure bill could impact their reelection prospects. At the time, the Senate was expected to move forward on market structure legislation, but it is still unclear if or when the bill will advance out of committee and for a full floor vote.

“[As] market structure legislation continues to be negotiated in Congress, 74% of crypto owners say they would be more likely to support a candidate who supports making clearer regulations for cryptocurrency, with nearly a third (31%) who say they would be much more likely to support such a candidate,” SWC said as part of a February survey of 1,000 crypto holders.

2026 races seen testing crypto industry’s impact on candidates

Money from the crypto industry funneled through political action committees (PACs) like Fairshake may have already influenced 2026 voters in early state primaries.

Protect Progress, a Fairshake affiliate spent $1.5 million opposing the reelection of Texas Representative Al Green, who has served in Congress since 2005. Although Green did not lose the Democratic primary, he will head to a runoff with Christian Menefee in May. SWC rated Menefee as “strongly supports crypto.”

However, in Illinois, Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton won the Democratic Senate primary against Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly. The victory came despite crypto-tied lobbyists spending millions of dollars on media buys supporting Krishnamoorthi. Stratton is expected to win in the general election and take the seat of retiring Democratic Senator Dick Durbin.

In 2024, Ohio saw some of the biggest spending from the crypto industry and other PACs to unseat Senator Sherrod Brown. Although the Democrat lost to Republican Bernie Moreno, he announced in August 2025 that he plans to run again, potentially leading to the industry eyeing the US state as a battleground for crypto.

“I would assume given the politics and the candidates in Ohio that there will be a s–tload of money spent here again,” former Ohio Representative Tim Ryan, who also sits on Coinbase’s Global Advisory Council, told Cointelegraph.

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