New Delhi, July 3 -- WASHINGTON - In Texas's 18th congressional district, it cost roughly $4 million to end a 20-year political career. Representative Al Green, a Houston Democrat who had served since 2005, lost his seat in the June primary to Christian Menefee after the super PAC Fairshake and its affiliated group Protect Progress spent that amount backing Menefee's campaign. Green had earned an "F" from Stand with Crypto, the industry's voter scorecard. Menefee had earned an "A."

Fairshake described Green as the first Democratic incumbent of the cycle to lose his seat, calling his defeat proof that "anti-crypto hostility carries real electoral consequences." That statement was not a boast. It was a warning directed at every remaining m...