Blue Wave Sinks Crypto's Biggest Election Bets, but Bitcoin Shrugs It Off and Heads Back Toward $80,000

The crypto industry spent more on this election than on any before it. On Tuesday night, it lost the races it cared about most.

Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress in the 3 November midterms, CoinDesk reported, in what its live blog called a stunning blow to President Donald Trump and his party. Bitcoin dropped below $76,000 as the results came in, then spent Wednesday clawing its way back toward $80,000.

What happened on election night

Democrats flipped Senate seats in North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Ohio, according to CoinDesk's running coverage. Roy Cooper won in North Carolina, Annie Andrews in South Carolina and James Talarico beat Ken Paxton in Texas.

In the House, Democrats secured a majority. Rep. Robert Garcia, set to chair the Oversight Committee, vowed to investigate the Trump family, CoinDesk reported, and noted that more than 40 House Democrats had already asked the Treasury in February to look into the Trump-linked crypto project World Liberty Financial.

Trump congratulated Democrats and blamed the Iran war and resulting inflation for Republican losses, according to CoinDesk. On Truth Social he wrote that he "wasn't on the ballot and if I was, we would have won in a LANDSLIDE!"

Crypto's $63 million Ohio bet fails

Going into the vote, Ohio was crypto's biggest test. Former Senator Sherrod Brown, one of the industry's best-known critics, passed it.

Fairshake and the Digital Freedom Fund poured a combined $63 million into the race over two months to oppose Brown, CoinDesk reported. He still defeated Republican Senator Jon Husted in what CoinDesk described as the most expensive race in US history.

The Block noted that this was not the first round. In 2024 Fairshake spent $12 million backing Republican Bernie Moreno, who unseated Brown. This time the money did not work, and Husted, who held an A rating from Stand With Crypto, is out.

Ohio was not the only miss. CoinDesk counted about $176 million spent by crypto PACs across the 2026 primaries and general election. Most of it backed safe winners, but roughly $75 million went to two races the industry lost: Ohio, and Illinois, where Fairshake spent over $10 million against Juliana Stratton in the primary. Stratton won her Senate seat on Tuesday.

Other setbacks followed. The Digital Freedom Fund, backed by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, gave $400,000 to Ashley Hinson, who lost Iowa's Senate race to Democrat Josh Turek. The Tether-linked Fellowship Fund had backed Paxton in Texas with $3.8 million during the primary.

Not a total wipeout for pro-crypto candidates

The picture is more mixed than the headline races suggest. Barry Moore, a Fairshake pick, won in Alabama, and Harriet Hageman will succeed crypto champion Cynthia Lummis in the Senate, CoinDesk reported.

Some of the night's Democratic winners are also friendly to the industry. The Block pointed out that Talarico holds an A rating from Stand With Crypto, partly for voting to create a strategic bitcoin reserve in Texas. Cory Booker and Mark Warner, both involved in crypto legislation talks, kept their seats.

Bitcoin's V-shaped night

Markets reacted fast. As early counts showed Democrats ahead in both chambers, bitcoin briefly fell below $76,000, its lowest since 15 September, while Nasdaq futures dropped more than 2%, CoinDesk reported.

The selling did not last. By Wednesday morning in New York, bitcoin was up 3% at $79,500 and ether was up 4%, according to CoinDesk's markets live blog. The Nasdaq rose 2.2% in early trading and the S&P 500 1.8%.

"Bitcoin dropped initially in response to the Democratic sweep of the midterm elections, but has since recovered as a clear outcome resolves political uncertainty," TDX Strategies founder Dick Lo told CoinDesk.

Nicolas Quatravaux, head of EMEA at Paradigm, said the result was no surprise because Polymarket had priced a Democratic win above 75% for a while. On election day, Paradigm printed about $660 million notional of BTC options blocks, more than double the day before, with roughly $420 million of calls bought against about $105 million sold.

Privacy coin zcash led the bounce, jumping 11% to $1,285, CoinDesk reported. The Trump-linked TRUMP meme coin went the other way, sliding more than 5% to near $1.50 as results came in.

Miners and AI data centres take a hit

The clearest losers were bitcoin miners turned AI hosts. Democrat Gina Hinojosa won the Texas governor's race on a platform that includes a moratorium on new data centre construction, CoinDesk reported.

Texas accounts for about 26% of planned US data centre projects, according to Jefferies data cited by CoinDesk. On Wednesday Cipher Digital fell 14%, Hut 8 10%, Bitdeer 6% and IREN 5.5%. Riot Platforms bucked the trend, rising 14% after announcing a $28 billion, 15-year lease for its Corsicana campus with a frontier AI lab.

What it means for crypto laws

The big question is the CLARITY Act, the market-structure bill the industry has spent years pushing. A Democratic Congress is generally seen as less favourable for pro-crypto legislation, Lo told CoinDesk, though divided government also makes sharp, market-unfriendly policy shifts unlikely.

"Democratic control of Congress may delay the implementation of certain crypto policies under the Trump administration, it does not mean that the current policy direction will immediately reverse," HashKey senior researcher Tim Sun told CoinDesk.

Brown's role matters too. With Democrats back in charge of the Senate, he could chair the Agriculture Committee, which oversees digital assets and prediction markets, The Block reported. Sources told The Block he would be unlikely to introduce any crypto legislation.

What to watch next

Near term, macro takes over again. Friday's official October jobs report is the next test, with economists expecting 65,000 new jobs, CoinDesk noted. Prediction markets, which have been raising big money, priced the sweep well before the votes were counted.

Longer term, expect oversight hearings on the Trump family's crypto ventures, a slower legislative calendar and a hard look inside the industry at how it spends its political money. Fairshake and its allies backed plenty of winners. They just lost the fights that defined the cycle.