Loser Industries in Post-Election Climate: Banking, Crypto, and AI

The Democratic takeover of Congress means several financial and technology-based industries — banking, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence — will be put under the microscope after Americans expressed suspicion about the economic engines propped by Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration. Senator Elizabeth Warren is in line to take over the powerful Senate Banking Committee and is expected to spearhead a push for stricter regulations on the financial industry after rules were weakened under President Trump. As chairwoman of the committee, Ms. Warren would control the panel’s oversight priorities and hearings. Ms. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, rose to power after she worked with the Obama administration to shepherd the creation of her prized Consumer Financial Protection Bureau following the housing market collapse. She is expected to create pressure on the financial services industry over credit card rates and what she considers excessive banking fees after the Trump administration gutted the bureau. Ms. Warren accused the president of costing Americans $19 billion in the first year after the Office of Management and Budget’s stop-work orders. Ms. Warren has also been pushing for tighter oversight of the cryptocurrency industry, which has grown by leaps since the start of Mr. Trump’s second term and his March 2026 executive order to build a Bitcoin reserve for the United States. The United States has a pittance of its budget — just $25 billion — invested in crypto despite a 2024 effort by Senator Cynthia Lummis, the retiring Wyoming senator, to expand the U.S. Treasury purchases of Bitcoins. That proposal was stymied by then-Senator Sherrod Brown. A bipartisan 119th Congress signed the Genius Act in July 2025, creating a regulatory framework for stablecoins, the digital asset issued with a fixed price to be used for payments or settlement. Ms. Warren opposed the Democratic co-sponsored legislation, saying it failed to address key risks that could harm consumers, financial stability, and national security.Mr. Brown withstood millions of dollars in crypto-industry spending in an effort to defeat his return to the Senate after he was booted by voters in the Republican-friendly 2024 election. The one-time head of the Banking Committee will serve the final two years of Vice President JD Vance’s term after defeating retiring Governor Mike DeWine’s appointee, John Hulsted.“I do not work for the utility companies. I do not work for data centers. I do not work for Wall Street. I work for you. I work for Ohio,” Mr. Brown told supporters at his victory rally. Mr. Brown is likely to rejoin the banking panel but under current Democratic Senate rules, Ms. Warren will retain seniority over him.Democrats succeeded in September in temporarily blocking passage of legislation to set federal rules for digital asset markets, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, over concerns about Mr. Trump’s ability to profit off of crypto ventures. It was doubtful Republicans would be able to pull the legislation across the finish line in the lame duck session.The Trump family generated more than $1 billion in income last year from crypto ventures, according to federal financial disclosure forms. A group of Senate Democrats, including Ms. Warren, released a statement raising concerns about those gains. “The disclosures heighten concerns about the President pushing Congress to pass crypto legislation in favor of the very industry he’s cashing in on, the Administration’s moves to exempt cryptocurrencies and service providers from existing financial services regulations, and its steps to weaken enforcement,” reads the statement.The Trump family has several investments in artificial intelligence firms according to an analysis of his financial disclosures by the Washington Post. Along with Mr. Trump’s investments, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are investors in a number of AI ventures. Mr. Trump has strongly advocated for both AI and data centers and has tried to rebrand AI as superintelligence in an effort to boost its popularity. Voters showed little appetite for pressing forward without guardrails.In Texas, Democratic Regina Hinojosa’s win in the governor’s race is threatening the rapid development of new data centers in the Lone Star State. She has called for an immediate pause on new data centers, where around a quarter of all American data center capacity is located. Ohio also pushed heavily into data centers. The governor-elect, Amy Acton, promised to support a conditional moratorium on new data center construction to ensure the companies cover all of their utility costs and pledged to ban non-disclosure agreements that keep communities in the dark about potential projects. At least 12 states offered ballot measures to control the rapid expansion of data centers. Thirty-seven measures succeeded with large margins while several more were still being counted. Chip stocks plunged on Wall Street on Wednesday as the broader markets showed strong gains.The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, remained bullish on data centers — but not on land. “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,” Mr. Musk said in an early Wednesday X post.

Loser Industries in Post-Election Climate: Banking, Crypto, and AI

Loser Industries in Post-Election Climate: Banking, Crypto, and AI

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