Voters in North Carolina, Texas and Arkansas head to the polls as the 2026 midterm cycle begins to take shape, with crypto policy emerging as a cross-cutting issue in several congressional contests. In Texas, Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett is pursuing a risky bid for the Senate seat held by Republican John Cornyn. Crockett’s campaign intersects with a broader narrative about funding from crypto-aligned groups and industry money aimed at shaping regulatory outcomes. The primary season features debates over stablecoin payments, market structure bills, and the balance between innovation and consumer protections. As crypto-focused political action committees mobilize substantial fundraising and media campaigns, the question for voters is whether these interests will tilt policy in Washington in the run-up to the 2026 midterms. Key takeaways Texas’s Senate primary has drawn substantial crypto-connected spending, with AdImpact reporting more than $122 million in total on both s...
Regulators in Washington signaled renewed urgency around how crypto markets are structured and regulated, as a Milken Institute panel brought together key U.S. overseers to discuss perpetual futures, prediction markets and the broader market framework. CFTC Chair Michael Selig outlined a path to US-accessible perpetual futures, while SEC Chair Paul Atkins pressed for greater congressional clarity to steer crypto policy. The conversations come amid ongoing questions about governance, enforcement actions against prediction-market platforms, and a stalled market-structure bill that remains the subject of intense debate in Congress. With the CFTC short of a full slate and lawmakers weighing ethics, stablecoins and tokenized equities, the regulatory tempo appears poised to intensify in the weeks ahead. During the Washington event, Selig said the Commission is actively pursuing a pathway to “true perpetual futures” for digital assets in the United States, aiming to deliver a functional versi...