Blue sweep, red candles: $BTC shrugged Off Congress while Trump-linked tokens got the boot 🗳️

Democrats won control of the House and Senate in the November 3 midterm elections, giving the party control of Congress and greater influence over legislation and oversight of President Donald Trump’s administration. The results included at least seven Senate flips in Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to the Associated Press. The new Congress is sworn in on January 3 2027, with Democrats taking control of House committees that can issue subpoenas and investigate the Trump administration, the president’s family and their business interests.

The political shift may complicate efforts to advance the CLARITY Act, which would establish federal rules for crypto assets and trading platforms. The House passed the bill 294–134 in July 2025, but a Senate procedural vote failed 49–50 on September 15, short of the 60 votes required. Negotiations have included disputes over ethics restrictions for officials’ crypto holdings and rewards paid on stablecoins, which are designed to maintain a fixed value. A revised version circulating in the Senate includes restrictions on the president and his family engaging in cryptocurrency business activities, but the provision is set to expire and would not cover President Donald Trump’s sons.

Crypto markets nevertheless recovered after an initial decline. Bitcoin briefly reached a six-week low before rebounding above $80,000 and rising 1.6% over 24 hours to $78,277, according to Decrypt data. CoinMarketCap later showed $BTC up more than 4% at around $80,500, while $ETH climbed 6% to $2,433; another Decrypt report recorded a 7% rise to $2,434. BNB gained 3%, XRP rose 2.6% and Solana gained 2.5%, as the overall crypto market increased 3.4% to $2.69 trillion.

André Dragosch, head of research at Bitwise Europe, said the outcome had been largely reflected in market expectations. “I think the Democratic sweep was largely priced in going into the midterms,” he told Decrypt. James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, made a similar assessment: “My sense is that Bitcoin had largely priced in a Democratic sweep, leaving room for a relief rally as uncertainty clears.” Polymarket had put the probability of a Democratic sweep at 65.5% at the start of the week, while traders on Kalshi and Polymarket placed it at roughly 75% on Tuesday before the results were announced.

Attention shifted to Trump-linked tokens as the broader market advanced. Official Trump (TRUMP) fell 17% over 24 hours to $1.33, while World Liberty Financial (WLFI) dropped over 7% to $0.047, according to CoinMarketCap data from around 5:32 p.m. UTC. MELANIA declined nearly 13% to around $0.066, while the unconfirmed VANCE token fell nearly 12%. Political memecoins collectively lost more than 16% of their market capitalization, falling to $477 million as trading volume increased 123% to $437 million. TRUMP, launched in January 2025, is the president’s official memecoin, while WLFI is the governance token of the Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial decentralized finance project launched in 2024.

The industry spent $195.8 million in 2024 to support candidates viewed as favorable to crypto, including $40 million against Sherrod Brown, who regained his Ohio Senate seat. More than $300 million was spent supporting crypto-friendly candidates from both parties across the 2024 and 2026 election cycles, with about $176 million going toward more than 100 races in 2026. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is expected to chair the Senate Banking Committee, while Rep. Maxine Waters is in line to run the House Financial Services Committee, giving both committees greater influence over crypto legislation and investigations.