The U.S. votes for the House and Senate on Tuesday, potentially setting the direction for the next two years of legislative and regulatory action.

The crypto industry has tried to play a major role in the election through donations, though results have been tempered at best. Despite that, a number of candidates with strong views on crypto are on the ballot, and whether or not they’re elected – as well as which party ends up controlling the House and the Senate – could well determine what sort of legislative priorities receive attention next year.

Despite their importance, the main story Tuesday was the surprise announcement by Sam Bankman-Fried, a major donor and the founder of trading firm FTX, and Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the founder of Binance, that the latter had signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire FTX.

The news came days after CoinDesk first reported that much of FTX sister firm Alameda Research’s balance sheet was composed of FTX’s own exchange token FTT, raising questions and concerns that the company may not have been as well-collateralized as it purported to be.

Prior to last week’s news, Bankman-Fried was a prominent face in Washington D.C, telling a banking conference last month that he spent much of his time talking to lawmakers and regulators. His influence may wane, given his company’s sudden decline, and legislative issues like the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, which he supported, may suddenly lose industry backing.

ND (9:07 p.m. ET) The Associated Press projects that Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) won another term representing his district in the House of Representatives. Soto has long been a member of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, and reintroduced the Token Taxonomy Act alongside Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) last year.

ND (9:00 p.m. ET): The Associated Press and CNN are predicting that Katie Britt has won a Senate seat, representing Alabama (with 1% of precincts reporting in at press time). The Republican will succeed Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who famously blocked unanimous consent against an amendment to last year’s bipartisan infrastructure bill which would have modified a crypto tax provision.

Britt said she supports crypto, accepting bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin for campaign donations and announcing her “staunch support” for the crypto ecosystem.

JH (8:47 p.m. ET): Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) is showing early hope for defending his young seat against his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker. This is one of the handful of U.S. Senate seats that can tip the 50-50 balance in that chamber, where Democrats have enjoyed their tie-breaking advantage.

Warnock had more than 50% of the vote with about 44% of the count complete, with Walker at 48%.

The Georgia incumbent is a member of both the Senate Banking Committee and the Agriculture Committee, which will probably be the two most important committees when it comes to the future of crypto regulations. However, Warnock hasn't yet been a major voice in digital-assets issues. He did sign on to a bill to make it harder for Russia to undermine sanctions by using cryptocurrencies.