Crypto firms flood PACs with donations in hope candidates will relax regulations

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.”

And on Tuesday, Harris’ campaign said she would support pro-crypto policies as president.