Banks Prepare To Spend $100 Million+ To Stop Crypto Bills, Expert Warns

The fight over US crypto legislation is turning into a direct clash between digital-asset firms and one of Washington’s oldest power centers. In an interview with Pete Rizzo, Satoshi Action Fund founder and CEO Dennis Porter said the banking industry is preparing a nine-figure lobbying push that could complicate efforts to advance both market structure legislation and stablecoin rules.

Crypto’s D.C. Outlook Just Got Darker

Porter said the core dispute is no longer just about whether Congress wants to regulate crypto, but on whose terms. President Donald Trump has publicly backed keeping the GENIUS Act intact, Porter noted, which he described as a positive sign for crypto firms. But he argued that support from the White House does not resolve the deeper standoff with banks, especially around stablecoins and the issue of rewards programs that banks view as a threat to deposits.

“The bank lobby has come out and said that they do plan to spend to counteract the crypto industry,” Porter said. “They said they’re raising nine figures, which is right up there with the Fairshake number. So that does create that counterbalance where they can essentially assert themselves into the ecosystem and start to peel some of these lawmakers off.”

That matters because, in Porter’s telling, crypto is entering the fight without a clean political backdrop. He said Democrats have grown more cautious around digital-asset legislation as Trump family involvement in the sector has raised ethics concerns among both lawmakers and voters.

At the same time, he described market structure as a far more expansive and politically difficult package than stablecoin legislation, since it touches not only securities-versus-commodities questions but also DeFi, illicit finance, ethics provisions and the makeup of the CFTC.

Porter argued that this leaves the legislation exposed to a wider set of objections and delays. He said there is still a path forward if key Democrats become comfortable with revisions, but added that the bill currently lacks a decisive forcing mechanism and has been pushed aside while lawmakers focus on a housing package.

The bank-crypto standoff, he suggested, could become especially dangerous if it turns into an open lobbying war. “If we end up in a situation where they’re directly lobbying against each other, you could see a lot of not just Democrats peel off this bill, but even possibly Republicans peel off this bill as well,” Porter said. “The vote is already tight in the Senate, very tight.”

His reasoning was straightforward: banks bring not just money, but entrenched local influence. Unlike much of crypto, Porter said, banks can point to branches, jobs and long-standing relationships in lawmakers’ districts. That advantage becomes even more important at a time when, by his own account, the industry is struggling politically.

“And also, crypto really is not popular right now,” Porter said. “Public trust in the crypto space is at an all-time low. Something that we’re deeply concerned about at Satoshi Action. Something that definitely needs some work.”

Porter framed that weakness as both a political problem and a policy argument. In his view, one purpose of market structure legislation is precisely to clean out the “crap” and scams that have damaged the sector’s reputation. But until lawmakers see a clearer consumer and political upside, he suggested, crypto firms may have trouble overcoming resistance from incumbents that view stablecoins as an existential threat to their business model.

He was notably cautious on timing. While some analysts have argued the window effectively closes by summer, Porter said the odds decline as the midterms approach but do not disappear entirely. His broader point was that the legislative calendar is being shaped as much by electoral incentives as by the text of the bills themselves.

At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.34 trillion.