Cryptocurrency "money power" helps the US election, with donations exceeding $200 million

Original title: "New Money is Fierce, Crypto Upstarts Donate More Than $200 Million to the US Election"

Original Author: flowie, ChainCatcher

 

Tech upstarts are expressing their own interests by providing campaign funds to support cryptocurrency-friendly candidates, which has also affected the attitude of American politicians towards crypto assets.

 

Following Trump and Biden's series of "pleasant" crypto measures, another US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also affirmed crypto technology, saying that "cryptocurrency is a symbol of freedom and transparency" and bought 21 bitcoins during the campaign to show support for cryptocurrency as a trading currency.

 

In addition to the growing number of young crypto voters, the crypto "money ability" that takes the initiative and the crypto "think tank" that cannot be ignored also affect the weight of crypto.

 

Last week, after Ripple announced a $25 million donation to the cryptocurrency super political action committee (PAC) Fairshake, a16z also announced that it would donate $25 million to Fairshake.

 

Behind the US election, the record-breaking "money power" of cryptocurrencies

 

During the 2022 midterm elections, Sam Bankman-Fried (now convicted of a felony), the founder of FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the United States at the time, made tens of millions of dollars in political donations and became the most core force in cryptocurrencies that influenced the US political ecology.

 

After Sam Bankman-Fried was imprisoned, in the 2024 US presidential election, crypto companies such as Coinbase and Ripple, as well as crypto-supporting venture capital institutions such as a16z, took over from FTX and SBF, trying to gain a voice for the crypto industry through "money power."

 

Ripple, a16z, Coinbase and other crypto PACs that continue to inject capital, Fairshake, has become the main political influence tool in the cryptocurrency industry in 2024.

 

Before Ripple and a16z announced a cumulative investment of $50 million in Fairshake, according to a report released on May 6 by consumer rights organization Public Citizen, Fairshake and its two affiliated PACs (Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress) had raised more than $102 million for the 2024 election, which ranked third among all PACs at the time.

 

According to an earlier report by Bloomberg, the crypto industry donated only $83 million to the 2020 US election. Although there are still several months to go before the 2024 US presidential election, the amount of political donations in the crypto industry has already far exceeded that of the previous election cycle.

 

Ripple contributed about $50 million of the more than 100 million dollars raised by Fairshake.

 

With a16z announcing that it will donate $25 million to Fairshake, a16z's donation is expected to reach $47 million, while Coinbase donated $23.5 million. In addition, Jump Crypto also donated $5 million, and Circle and Kraken donated $1 million each.

 

Some well-known people in the crypto industry also participated in the donation.

 

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twin billionaire executives behind Winklevoss Capital Management, donated a total of $5 million.

 

Tether and Bitfinex executive Phil Potter donated nearly $2 million, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong personally donated $1 million.

 

In addition, Electric Capital executive Avichal Garg, Multicoin Capital's Tushar Jain and Kyle Samani Paradigm's Matt Huang donated hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

Behind the more radical crypto political donations is also the survival battle that crypto companies have to face under the increasingly stringent policies of US regulators.

 

Ripple, Coinbase, Kraken, and others have been accused of violating securities laws, as the main force of crypto donations in the 2024 US election and the most affected by US regulation.

 

Although Kraken chose to accept a $30 million fine to reach a settlement. But Ripple, Coinbase and other institutions are still struggling with US regulators.

 

Recently, Ripple filed an objection to the US SEC's motion for a judge to impose a $2 billion fine on it, asking the court to impose a fine of no more than $10 million on it. The lawsuit against the crypto exchange Coinbase, which was accused of violating securities laws by the US SEC, has not yet been concluded.

 

Compared to obtaining funds through wealthy crypto companies and investment institutions, the crypto lobbying organization Stand With Crypto, which is initiated by Coinbase, will also launch a PAC for the US election, raising funds from its 440,000 members to support crypto-friendly politicians.

 

Currently, its Stand With Crypto official website shows that nearly 900,000 crypto users have provided it with more than $87 million, and the largest donation comes from the recent $1 million donation from Moopay.

 

According to OpenSecrets, a non-profit organization that tracks US political funding data, there are also several crypto industry supporters among the largest political donors in the United States.

 

The largest donor at present is Jeffrey Yass, a US billionaire and co-founder of trading giant Susquehanna International Group (SIG), who donated more than $70 million between 2023 and 2024.

 

In early July 2022, Jeffrey Yass donated 100 bitcoins (BTC) to the crypto political organization "Crypto Freedom PAC", which was worth more than $1.9 million at the time, setting a record for the largest political donation denominated in Bitcoin recorded by the Federal Election Commission. Joe Kildea, the person in charge of Crypto Freedom PAC, once said that Jeffrey Yass's crypto donation may be due to Crypto Freedom PAC's support for candidates who oppose the Biden administration's regulation of cryptocurrencies.

 

In addition, a16z founder Marc Andreessen also donated more than $11 million to this US presidential election.

 

More crypto donations are expected to emerge. Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey also recently announced that his team will raise $100 million to launch a campaign to "ensure that the next US president supports Bitcoin."

 

The winning rate is over 80%, and the role of encryption "money power" is beginning to show

 

According to Public Citizen's report, in the six primaries in 2024 in which the richest encryption PAC Fairshake and its affiliated PACs intervened and have now ended, only one candidate supported by cryptocurrency failed, with a winning rate of over 80%.

 

Among them, Fairshake spent $10 million on advertising to oppose Katie Porter's campaign for California Senator, and Katie Porter eventually lost the election.

 

In the coming months, another 11 candidates supported by Fairshake and its affiliated PAC will participate in the party primaries, and some candidates have received more than $3 million in support.

 

Fairshake has also pledged to invest in the general election Senate races in battleground states such as Ohio and Montana, which is considered crucial to securing a majority in the Senate.

 

Coinbase's crypto lobbying organization "Stand With Crypto" also uses part of the fundraising funds to hold crypto events to get close to candidates for the 2024 US presidential election to infiltrate ideas that are favorable to crypto.

 

In December 2023, Republicans Asa Hutchinson and Vivek Ramaswamy, and Democrat Dean Phillips exchanged views on the crypto industry at the "Stand With Crypto" event and interacted with crypto media CoinDesk.

 

The Stand With Crypto website once showed that it would also invite candidates including Trump, independent candidate Robert F.Kennedy Jr., and Republicans Doug Burgum, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Chris Christie.

 

The crypto "think tank" that cannot be ignored

 

In addition to exerting "money power", some crypto organizations or individuals are also acting as think tanks for important candidates to influence US elections and future crypto policy directions.

 

Trump has recently changed his attitude towards crypto and played the crypto card. For example, he said, "Ensure the future of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin happens in the United States," supported cryptocurrencies, accepted crypto donations, and pardoned the founder of Silk Road.

 

Trump's series of crypto cards have won him a lot of praise. This is inseparable from the professional crypto advice provided by David Bailey's team at Bitcoin Magazine.

 

David Bailey revealed that his team has been providing advice to Trump's campaign to develop a policy that is friendly to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

 

Bailey also mentioned an executive order submitted to Trump that will be signed on the first day of Trump's return to power, focusing on cryptocurrency issues, but did not provide further details.

 

Amid Trump's crypto offensive, the Biden campaign is also actively looking for crypto think tanks. According to The Block, the Biden campaign has recently begun to contact some crypto industry experts, including crypto people who Biden has rejected in the past, to seek guidance on its crypto policy.

 

Conclusion

 

The 180-degree reversal of the US SEC's attitude towards the Ethereum ETF and the uncharacteristic support of candidates such as Trump and Biden for crypto all show that crypto has become an unprecedented important weight in the US election.

 

With the growth of crypto super PACs, crypto companies' efforts to change the unfavorable regulatory environment, and some crypto professional teams entering the competition team to offer advice and suggestions, it is expected that the influence of crypto on the US election will continue to expand.

 

Original link