Regulators as Backdoor for Crypto

When Congress fails to pass an industry‑friendly law, regulated firms can pivot to sympathetic administrative agencies to get many of the same outcomes through enforcement discretion and rulemaking. That shift lets an industry with heavy lobbying dollars entrench inside the financial system without a durable statute, raising later rollback costs for stricter regulators or future lawmakers. — This reframes legislative defeats not as final losses but as tactical redirections toward agency capture, with implications for democratic accountability, financial stability, and how we assess the impact of lobbying spending.