Crypto backers contributed to half of $248M in U.S. election funding

Crypto is throwing money like it’s a game of Monopoly in the 2024 U.S. election. So far, Coinbase, Ripple, and a few other crypto giants have thrown down over $119 million to make sure their favorite candidates come out on top. 

The donations are almost entirely funneled into super PACs that exist for one reason: to back pro-crypto politicians and crush anyone who dares to oppose them.

Fairshake PAC has raked in $202.9 million so far, with more than half of that coming straight from crypto companies. And big-time venture capitalists and crypto moguls are also in the mix. 

Andreessen Horowitz’s founders dropped $44 million, the Winklevoss twins chipped in $5 million, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tossed in a cool million. Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s billionaire CEO, summed it up saying: 

“Money moves the needle. For better or worse, that’s how our system works.”

While they can’t give directly to campaigns, corporations can dump unlimited cash into super PACs, as long as there’s no direct coordination with the candidates. But there are still rules. 

For instance, companies with federal contracts aren’t supposed to contribute to election campaigns.

Coinbase, a federal contractor, is already facing complaints for allegedly violating this rule with its $25 million donation to Fairshake and another $500,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund.

Super PACs have become the playground for billionaires since Citizens United, with just 25 wealthy individuals contributing $1.4 billion over the past decade.

Compared to this, direct corporate contributions have been small potatoes—$313 million between 2010 and 2020. 

But crypto companies are already changing the game, contributing $129 million in the last three election cycles alone. That’s 15% of all corporate contributions since 2010. 

The only industry spending more on elections right now is fossil fuels, and even they’ve “only” spent $176 million over the last 14 years.

The crypto industry’s strategy seems to be working. Out of 42 primary races where crypto-backed super PACs got involved, they won 36. 

And when the House of Representatives voted on a bill to change crypto regulation from the SEC to the CFTC, 71 Democrats broke ranks with the Biden administration to support it.

Even Donald Trump, who used to be skeptical about crypto, is now all in. At the Bitcoin Conference in July, he declared he’d make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet.” He’s even talking about creating a “strategic bitcoin reserve.” 

Kamala Harris’s advisers have also reportedly been reaching out to crypto companies to “reset” relations, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently declared at a “Crypto4Harris” fundraiser that “crypto is here to stay, no matter what.”