As Clarity Act teeters, mystery group hammers away at crypto in Washington ads

PolicyAs Clarity Act teeters, mystery group hammers away at crypto in Washington adsCrypto Watchdog has taken to warning people in DC about the hazards of digital assets, and its director won't say who is backing it.By Jesse Hamilton|Edited by Nikhilesh De Aug 4, 2026, 1:00 p.m. 3 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX iconX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on SummaryShowCrypto Watchdog has suddenly appeared to trumpet about the dangers of crypto in the 11th hour of the Senate’s Clarity Act negotiations, but the group’s financial backing is being kept secret. The organization has been running TV and online ads in the Washington area, linking digital assets with terrorists and drug cartels as lawmakers try to finish work on the crypto market structure legislation. The crypto industry's central policy drive is to get U.S. laws that elevate it to a fully regulated and government-approved corner of the financial system. While the legislation to do that is struggling with its final Senate test, a mystery organization is flooding Washington, DC, with ads linking crypto to terrorists and drug cartels.Across television and social media, the localized campaign warns in one example: "The worst people operating in the darkest places use crypto because there are no guardrails," citing connections to drug cartels, terrorists and people praying against seniors."Let's bring crypto out of the shadows now," the ads say.The recently emerging group behind the campaign is Crypto Watchdog, run by Executive Director Chapin Fay, a media strategist who had been involved in past Republican political campaigns but hadn't been previously associated with crypto matters."Our mission is fairly simple and direct," he told CoinDesk in an interview. "It's to bring sunlight and transparency to an over-$2 trillion industry that has historically not been very transparent."His organization started work several weeks ago as the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act has bee…

As Clarity Act teeters, mystery group hammers away at crypto in Washington ads

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