Crypto Pumps After Epic Loss? Anchorage Digital INTERVIEW

Bitcoin erased its drop tied to midterm uncertainty and rose 4%, while Ethereum gained 6%. About $386 million in short positions were liquidated in four hours, and crypto sentiment moved from fear to neutral. Mark Cudmore saw the result as bullish for markets into year-end, but Kevin Weissacki cautioned that it was too early to judge the election’s full market impact.

Weissacki said the election result does not directly change crypto’s outlook and that the industry may have overreacted beforehand. He expects the CFTC, SEC, and OCC to keep advancing crypto policy through rulemaking and administrative action, rather than relying only on new legislation. He judged the Clarity Act unlikely to pass, though hearings or narrower bills could still address national security and exchange-related issues.

Potential congressional scrutiny could focus on recent hacks, vertical integration, DeFi, and national security. Weissacki expects Democrats to oppose firms combining exchange, custody, and clearing, and noted that a compromise in the Clarity Act removed a developer safe harbor from criminal liability that some in DeFi and crypto had supported. He said companies deeply involved in crypto without clear regulatory status may face greater scrutiny, while most of the industry is safe. Firms seeking clarity can pursue status as swap dealers, broker-dealers, or OCC national trust banks.

Weissacki said traditional financial institutions are entering crypto through work on tokenized securities and DTCC projects, setting up competition with crypto firms for tokenized-stock markets. He said tokenized securities could reach trillions, but security concerns are slowing adoption. He was unsure whether DTCC or the OKX–ICE partnership would prevail, although recent developments appeared to favor DTCC. Anchorage Digital, he said, has held its OCC charter for six years; qualified-bank custody alongside exchanges, APIs enabling near-instant trades, and a banking layer with consumer protections could help broaden digital-asset adoption.

The discussion put crypto’s three largest PACs’ spending at roughly $170 million, compared with about $72 million from AI-focused PACs. Weissacki argued that crypto should direct more resources toward sustained, bipartisan lobbying, pairing professional lobbyists with subject-matter experts. He said even $10 million in lobbying could advance priorities such as Fed master-account access and stablecoin rewards. He also urged the industry to explain how the technology benefits Americans and avoid burning bridges, pointing to the GENIUS Act and repeal of SAB 121 as successes.

Weissacki said crypto advocates had spent 18 months preparing for a possible Democratic House and Senate and had engaged both parties and key committees, but had done less outreach to intelligence and Homeland Security committees. He expects committee assignments and priorities to become clearer in January, making the election’s policy implications easier to assess. Cudmore expected limited policy change and saw potential for Asia to outperform as U.S. exceptionalism fades; Weissacki said a bullish 2027 outlook would partly depend on economic policy and Federal Reserve rate decisions.