Cryptocurrency companies have accounted for nearly half of all corporate donations during the 2024 presidential election – provoking critics to cry foul over the industry’s growing influence, according to a report.
Crypto corporations dished out more than $119 million in political donations, mostly into a non-partisan super PAC focused on electing pro-crypto candidates, according to a report by nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen released Wednesday.
Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange platform in the US, was the biggest donor in the industry – flooding PACs with $50.5 million, according to the report.
Blockchain company Ripple came in a close second place, donating $48 million, the report said.
The two crypto giants — both of which have been substantially scrutinized by the SEC — contributed 80% of the industry’s total donations.
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Crypto corporations accounted for nearly half of all corporate donations this election cycle, according to a new report. REUTERS
Crypto investors are hoping pro-crypto candidates across the political spectrum will win seats in the upcoming elections and relax the strict industry regulations enforced under President Joe Biden’s administration.
Even oil companies and banks – typically some of the largest election donors – have been beaten out by crypto this year.
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2010 allowed corporations to donate limitless amounts of money into US elections.
Rick Claypool, research director at Public Citizen and author of the report, told CNBC the outpouring of crypto donations used to “silence crypto’s critics and elevate its backers embodies everything that is wrong with the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision.”
Crypto accounts for 15% of all the disclosed contributions made since 2010 – despite the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, being created just the year before.
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More than 90% of total corporate crypto donations were made during this election cycle.
Most of the crypto donations funneled into Fairshake, a bipartisan pro-crypto super PAC focused on electing pro-crypto candidates across the spectrum to office.
Fairshake is one of the top-spending PACs this year, the report said.
Along with Coinbase and Ripple’s major contributions, venture firm Andreessen Horowitz donated $47 million and Jump Crypto gave $15 million to the PAC.
Wealthy investors like Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and the Winklevoss twins also donated millions of dollars to the crypto PAC, the report said.
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Fairshake, a bipartisan pro-crypto PAC, has raised $169 million this year, according to a report. AFP via Getty Images
Fairshake, along withs its two affiliate PACs, have raised about $169 million – and more than 90% of the contributions come from big corporations, according to the report.
Fairshake dispensed about $75 million in July and still has nearly $120 million left to dole out before the November election, according to Federal Election Commission filings seen by CNBC.
The pro-crypto PAC has pledged $25 million to 18 House candidates, split evenly among nine Democrats and nine Republicans, the non-profit report said.
It has committed $18 million to three Senate races, the report said.
The pro-crypto PAC has clinched wins in 36 of the 42 primary races it backed – without being loud about its cryptocurrency focus.
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Fairshake-backed political advertisements have not included an emphasis on cryptocurrency. REUTERS
Candidates’ political advertisements, sponsored by Fairshake, haven’t mentioned crypto at all. Instead, the ads discuss typical political talking points – probably because crypto is not the number one priority for the average voter.
“The sole reason crypto is a hot-button topic in this election cycle is that crypto businesses are spending eye-popping sums to make themselves impossible to ignore,” Claypool told CNBC.
Both former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have been trying to stake their claim as the pro-crypto candidate in order to win over crypto bigwigs.
Trump reversed his skeptic stance on crypto from 2019.
Former president Donald Trump has tried to stake his claim as the pro-crypto presidential candidate. AP
So far this year, Trump launched a non-fungible token collection on the Solana blockchain, became the first major presidential nominee to accept donations in cryptocurrency and headlined the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tenn.
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The Republican nominee said he had raised $25 million in crypto donations as of the end of July.
Most recently, he promoted his family’s upcoming cryptocurrency platform called “The DeFiant Ones” in a Truth Social post on Thursday.
Crypto investors seem to have placed their bets on Trump, as Bitcoin and crypto platform shares soared after he was shot in an assassination attempt – which voters assumed would help his odds of winning the presidency.
Bitcoin shares spiked again after Trump spoke at the Bitcoin Conference and pledged to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet.”
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) said a “sensible” crypto law could pass the Senate by the end of the year during a virtual town hall named “Crypto4Harris.”
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And on Tuesday, Harris’ campaign said she would support pro-crypto policies as president.
Zhang is first economic crime suspect Bangkok has extradited to China since their 1999 treaty took effect
Tedy Teow is the first suspect in an economic crime that Thailand has turned over to China since an extradition treaty between the two countries took effect 25 years ago. (Photo: CCTV)
A Malaysian businessman accused of leading a fraud syndicate has been extradited from Thailand to China in a case involving more than 100 billion yuan (US$14 billion).
He is the first suspect in an economic crime that Bangkok has turned over to China since an extradition treaty between the two countries took effect in 1999, according to the Chinese public security ministry on Friday.
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“The successful extradition … is of landmark significance to the consolidation and deepening of law enforcement and judicial cooperation between China and Thailand,” the ministry said in the release, calling the move a “major achievement”.
The ministry said the suspect was sent to China on Tuesday and only gave the man’s surname: Zhang. This was a reference to Zhang Yufa, better known as Tedy Teow Wooi Huat, the founder of the business conglomerate MBI Group.
Following an investigation, Teow is suspected of running a pyramid scheme and defrauding people, many of them thought to be Chinese nationals, out of money by tricking them into purchasing MBI’s unlicensed and unrecognised cryptocurrency.
More than 10 million investors have fallen prey to the scheme since 2012, and the money involved was worth over 100 billion Chinese yuan, according to the ministry’s statement.
Authorities in the southwest Chinese megacity of Chongqing launched an investigation into Teow in late 2020, and months later the China bureau of the International Criminal Police Organisation issued a worldwide wanted notice for him.
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Thai police arrested the businessman in July 2022 after he fled Malaysia. Following that, Beijing submitted a request to Bangkok seeking to have him deported to stand trial in China.
A Thai court issued a final ruling to transfer Teow to China in May, a decision later supported by the Thai government.
Kuala Lumpur had also sought Teow’s deportation to Malaysia, where he is also wanted for fraud. But their request was made after China’s.
MBI Group, which describes itself as having “diversified interests in resources and management developments”, made headlines in October 2019 when about 100 Chinese nationals staged a demonstration outside Beijing’s embassy in Malaysia claiming they had lost their life savings to the firm
The Chinese government has characterised Teow’s case as “extraordinary” and expected the handover of the suspect to set a “positive example” for future extradition cooperation between China and other countries.
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China’s top diplomat Wang Yi called for intensified transnational cooperation to combat cross-border crimes in the region, especially online gambling and telecoms fraud, when meeting his counterparts from Thailand, Laos and Myanmar during the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) forum in the Thai city of Chiang Mai last week.
Wang said that the four countries had undertaken many collaborative operations and arrested over 50,000 suspects in gambling and fraud cases since last year.
The foreign ministers of all six countries under the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism, which also includes Cambodia and Vietnam, reached a joint statement on strengthening cooperation in combating transnational crime during the gathering.
“We are deeply concerned about the gravity and seriousness of the persistent and escalating threats posed by transboundary crimes,” the statement said.
“We urge member countries to prioritise cooperation in the areas of anti-drug trafficking as well as curbing telecommunication/online frauds and all kinds of online gambling,” it added, calling all six nations to work together to improve information sharing and border controls.
Over the past 24 hours, Internet Computer’sICP/USD price rose 5.55% to $8.51. This continues its positive trend over the past week where it has experienced a 23.0% gain, moving from $6.91 to its current price. As it stands right now, the coin’s all-time high is $700.65.
The chart below compares the price movement and volatility for Internet Computer over the past 24 hours (left) to its price movement over the past week (right). The gray bands are Bollinger Bands, measuring the volatility for both the daily and weekly price movements. The wider the bands are, or the larger the gray area is at any given moment, the larger the volatility.
The trading volume for the coin has tumbled 0.0% over the past week while the circulating supply of the coin has risen 0.05%. This brings the circulating supply to 469.21 million. According to our data, the current market cap ranking for ICP is #28 at $3.99 billion.
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This article was generated by Benzinga’s automated content engine and reviewed by an editor.
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