Tom Lee says the gridlock that typically follows US midterm elections could be good news for risk assets, crypto and tech stocks included. The Fundstrat co-founder's argument runs through two channels: post-midterm support for data center buildout, and the CLARITY Act, the market structure bill that has been working its way through Congress.
Put those together, Lee says, and you get the ingredients for a risk-on market environment — the kind where capital rotates into higher-beta names rather than hiding in cash.
Lee's name carries weight with the crypto crowd because he has been a persistent bull through multiple cycles. When he sketches a macro setup, traders listen, even when they disagree with the conclusion.
The gridlock part isn't a throwaway
Split control of Washington is usually sold to voters as a recipe for nothing getting done. For markets, that's often the point. Divided government tends to cap the tail risk of sweeping legislation that could hit one sector hard — and it gives investors a reason to stop pricing in policy surprises.
Lee's framing fits that pattern. If neither party can push through a big new tax or regulatory package, the uncertainty premium that hangs over risk assets starts to come down. Crypto, which has spent years fighting for legislative clarity rather than against it, is in an odd position: gridlock is less scary than a hostile unified government.
Data centers and the CLARITY Act
The two items Lee flags aren't random. Data center demand has become a proxy for the AI buildout trade, and anything that keeps power and land flowing to those projects keeps a pillar of the tech rally intact. The CLARITY Act sits on the crypto side, aimed at drawing a line between which digital assets are securities and which are commodities.
For crypto specifically, the bill matters because the current setup — regulation by enforcement, with agencies fighting over jurisdiction — has been the sector's biggest structural headache. A clearer statutory framework wouldn't make everyone happy, but it would give exchanges, token issuers and institutional allocators a rulebook to underwrite against.
Lee's point is that post-midterm momentum behind both the data center agenda and the CLARITY Act could reinforce each other. Money that wants exposure to AI infrastructure and money that wants exposure to digital assets would find the political backdrop less hostile at the same time.
What has to go right
The path from midterm gridlock to an actual risk-on rally runs through several gates. Election outcomes have to produce the divided government Lee is assuming. The CLARITY Act has to keep moving rather than stalling out in committee. And broader macro conditions — rates, liquidity, the dollar — have to cooperate, which is not something any single legislative outcome controls.
Lee's call is a thesis, not a schedule. He's describing a setup, not a trigger. The next concrete step is whether the CLARITY Act picks up floor momentum once the post-election session gets underway, and whether the data center buildout keeps drawing the same political support it has enjoyed heading into the vote.
