House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill, one of the cryptocurrency industry's closest allies on Capitol Hill, has won reelection in Arkansas, but he is expected to hand over the committee gavel after Democrats captured control of the House of Representatives in Tuesday's midterm elections.

The Associated Press called the race on Thursday, two days after voters went to the polls, confirming Hill's victory over Democratic challenger Chris Jones in Arkansas' 2nd Congressional District. Democrats are set to take over committee leadership when the new Congress convenes in January, ending Hill's tenure as chairman of the panel, which holds jurisdiction over banking, securities, and much of the US financial system and has been a key venue for federal digital asset legislation.

Hill compiled a strongly pro-crypto record during his chairmanship, sponsoring the CLARITY Act — a market-structure bill that passed the House in July 2025 and would divide digital asset oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — and voting in favor of the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin framework signed into law in July 2025. The two are among the most significant digital asset bills to advance in Congress. He holds an A rating from the crypto advocacy group Stand With Crypto, which classifies him as strongly supportive of cryptocurrency.

The industry mobilized to defend his seat. Fairshake, a super political action committee (PAC) backed by the cryptocurrency industry, pledged $1 million in October to support Hill's reelection campaign as part of a broader effort to retain crypto-friendly lawmakers in Congress.

With the chamber set to flip, California Democrat Maxine Waters, the committee's current ranking member who previously served as chairwoman from 2019 to 2023, is the leading contender to succeed Hill as chair, according to Reuters reporting.

Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, an outcome that raises uncertainty over the future of US crypto legislation and increases the prospect of heightened scrutiny of the industry. Crypto-backed super PACs spent more than $176 million during the election cycle, a measure of how heavily the sector invested in shaping the composition of the next Congress. The Democratic caucus's formal selection of committee leadership in the weeks before the new Congress is seated in January will settle who holds the gavel over the panel's banking, securities, and digital asset jurisdiction.