After spending unprecedented amounts of money to sway races up and down the ballot, the cryptocurrency industry is perhaps the biggest winner of the 2024 election cycle — to the potential detriment of consumers and the financial system.

Just a decade ago, crypto was largely unheard of — but now the industry is worth more than $3 trillion and will have more than 270 crypto-friendly politicians in the House of Representatives, a majority of senators with favorable views on the nascent industry, and multiple allies in president-elect Donald Trump’s White House.

Three cryptocurrency political action committees spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars trying to elect pro-crypto candidates on both sides of the aisle — the most of any industry this election cycle. This so-called “crypto triad” even donated to influential politicians’ campaigns not facing reelection or in uncompetitive races.