Original Title: Mapping Crypto's Lobbying Layer
Original Author: David Christopher, Bankless
Original Translation: Saoirse, Foresight News
The policy infrastructure of the crypto industry has matured significantly over the past decade.
From its beginnings as a single think tank in Washington, it has evolved into a complete network composed of industry associations, advocacy organizations, and specific ecological lobbying agencies.
The current landscape encompasses both comprehensive industry groups and specialized advocates focused on single ecosystems, each playing different roles in promoting regulatory clarity.
In February 2026, Hyperliquid Policy Center was officially established as the latest member; prior to this, Solana Policy Institute made its debut in 2025.
Let us delve into the fact: within the Washington crypto policy power center, which institutions are voicing their opinions.
Coin Center (2014)
The earliest crypto policy think tank.
Coin Center has been deeply engaged in Washington for over a decade, consistently advocating for open blockchain networks and user rights, and is one of the most ideologically libertarian organizations in the industry.
Unlike other organizations that focus on industry interests, Coin Center prioritizes representing individual users: defending users' rights to self-custody, privacy protection, and using crypto assets without being constrained by burdensome taxation.
Its core objectives for 2026 include:
Promoting the "Keep Your Coins Act," which prohibits the federal government from banning self-custody;
Supporting the "Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act" (BRCA), clarifying that developers who do not hold user funds should not be classified as money transmitters;
Proposing detailed tax reforms: establishing a $600 tax-exempt threshold for small transactions, simplifying cost basis reporting, and taxing staking rewards only upon sale, rather than upon receipt.
Note: Taxation of staking rewards is a common pain point in the industry. Currently, the IRS treats newly minted tokens from staking as immediate income, causing validators to owe taxes even without selling any assets, resulting in extremely high compliance costs. Coin Center advocates treating staking rewards like other generative assets: taxed only upon sale.
Blockchain Association (BA, 2018)
The largest crypto industry association in the United States, representing over 100 member organizations, including trading platforms, mining companies, DeFi protocols, and infrastructure providers.
If Coin Center voices based on ideology, the Blockchain Association operates in an alliance model: coordinating member interests and transforming them into legislative priorities.
Current focuses include:
Tax equality, market structure legislation, DeFi protection;
Formally releasing tax principles, calling for small transaction tax exemptions, considering stablecoins as cash equivalents, and localizing perpetual contracts;
Fully supporting BRCA and broader developer protection clauses.
DeFi Education Fund (DEF, 2021)
Originally established through governance grants from Uniswap, focusing specifically on decentralized finance. The work revolves around three pillars: protecting software developers, empowering DeFi users, and defending permissionless blockchains.
At the developer level: DEF advocates that builders should be exempt from liability when third parties misuse tools, opposing the imposition of a regulatory framework designed for custodial intermediaries on developers. In alignment with Coin Center and the Blockchain Association, DEF also strongly supports BRCA.
At the user level: Advocating for self-custody rights, privacy protection, reducing reliance on trusted third parties, and emphasizing financial inclusion.
DEF's approach is more inclined towards legal and research: submitting amicus briefs, regulatory comments, publishing popular science interpretations, and managing a high-impact newsletter titled "Decentralized Finance Debrief" (DeFi Debrief).
Solana Policy Institute (2025)
The first policy organization dedicated to public chain ecosystems in the industry, co-founded by the former CEO of the DeFi Education Fund and the former CEO of the Blockchain Association. It shares core demands with the entire industry while closely serving Solana's ecosystem strategy.
Core feature agenda:
Project Open: Promoting pilot securities tokenization, allowing issuers to register equity as digital tokens on the public chain, achieving instant settlement and transparent ownership records, positioning Solana as the infrastructure for expanding traditional capital markets;
Supporting the "Equal Opportunity for All Investors Act": Expanding the definition of qualified investors, moving beyond just wealth thresholds to include knowledge qualifications.
Hyperliquid Policy Center (2026)
The newest and most vertically positioned crypto policy organization, established with an investment of $29 million from the Hyper Foundation, with the sole core mission: to enable perpetual futures to comply with regulations in the United States.
Led by the former Chief Policy Officer of the Blockchain Association, HPC precisely targets regulatory gaps for decentralized derivatives.
Institutional goals:
Educating policymakers about the operational logic of non-custodial trading protocols, promoting a regulatory framework that does not require intermediary custody.
Strategic significance: The "Clarity Act" is stalled in the Senate; HPC seizes the window of opportunity to shape regulatory perceptions of DeFi derivatives. Its core argument is: the United States must either establish a framework to participate in competition or entirely relinquish the market (in 2025, the trading volume of perpetual contracts reached $92.7 trillion).
Industry Consensus and Differences
Although the five institutions have different positioning and scope, their core demands are highly consistent:
Common Goals:
Developer Protection: Nearly all support BRCA, clearly stating that developers who do not hold funds are not money transmitters;
Staking Tax Reform: Block rewards/staking rewards should be taxed upon sale, not upon receipt;
Rights Protection: User self-custody rights and small transaction tax exemptions.
Differing Directions:
Coin Center: Adhering to ideology, focusing on privacy and user rights;
Blockchain Association: Coordinating the interests of over 100 members of the industry;
DeFi Education Fund: Deeply focusing on regulatory segmentation and legal support for DeFi;
Solana/Hyperliquid Policy Institutions: Ecosystem-specific, agenda closely aligned with core business of their ecosystem (securities tokenization, perpetual contracts).
These institutions jointly define the underlying values of the industry while reserving specific promotion space for key segmentation topics, marking the transition of the U.S. crypto industry from a "unified voice" to an era of "specialization, ecological focus, and refinement" in policy contention.
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