Crypto industry super PAC is 33-2 in primaries, with $100 million for House, Senate races

WASHINGTON – A super PAC funded by major cryptocurrency companies scored several victories Tuesday night in the congressional primaries, the latest in a series of victories for the new big player in American election financing.

Fairshake PAC, which supports candidates across the political spectrum whose positions align with those of the cryptocurrency industry, will enter the general election campaign season with more than $100 million it plans to spend to elect pro-cryptocurrency lawmakers to the House of Representatives and the Senate.

On Tuesday, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., lost his primary to Westchester County Executive George Latimer. Bowman's loss was due in part to his vocal criticism of Israel. However, cryptocurrency Fairshake PAC also entered the race and spent $2 million to air an ad critical of Bowman.

Fairshake and its two affiliated political action committees, one for Republicans and one for Democrats, quietly racked up a half-dozen more victories Tuesday as the candidates they endorsed surged to victory, although neither race was competitive. Among them was Rep. John Curtis, who won the Republican nomination for Utah's open Senate seat.

Created last year as part of a joint effort Among more than a dozen crypto companies, Fairshake PAC has become one of the highest-spending PACs in the 2024 election cycle.

Fairshake and its two affiliated PACs have so far spent more than $37 million on primary ads, according to AdImpact.

Despite a broad mission to defend the entire $2.2 trillion crypto market, Fairshake is funded by a very small set of donors.

Of the $160 million in total contributions Fairshake has raised since its founding, around $155 million (or 94%) can be traced back to just four companies: Ripple, Andreesen Horowitz, Coinbase, and Jump Crypto.

But it's not just money that the crypto industry plans to deploy this fall. the non-profit organization Support cryptocurrencies says it has collected more than 1.1 million email addresses from cryptocurrency "advocates" it hopes to engage until the polls.

The strength of crypto groups is being felt on Capitol Hill, especially among lawmakers facing difficult elections in 2025, where a few thousand voters, or a sizable donation, could make the difference not only in a race but in which party controls each. camera.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple He said this is a “defining moment” for cryptocurrencies and that having an “organized and cohesive effort around Fairshake” has made a difference.

"This is an industry that has been behind in Washington and has really been on the defensive," Garlinghouse told CNBC.

The effort also aims to showcase a mature crypto industry. After the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fritothat invested millions in the 2022 midterm elections, crypto groups present themselves as more serious players.

Coinbase chief policy officer Faryar Shirzad, who previously worked at both the White House and Goldman Sachs, said the industry has realized the need to not only engage lawmakers but also coordinate with cryptocurrency owners. and blockchain to magnify their political influence.

"We realized that the only way to get politics out of cryptocurrencies was to build a political operation that would level the playing field."

He also said the group is leveraging what he sees as a grassroots movement to allow “Americans who own cryptocurrency to be part of the process.”

In the coming months, the group does not plan to invest in the presidential race, but rather in the House of Representatives and the Senate, according to a Fairshake spokesperson. Both chambers are in play for 2025.

Fairshake has not yet begun spending in the general election cycle, but several industry officials said they are keeping an eye on states like Ohio and Montana, where Democratic incumbents who are bearish on cryptocurrencies face rivals who have embraced the technology.

In Ohio, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, a outspoken crypto skepticHe is facing Republican Bernie Moreno, who founded a blockchain startup.

In Montana, Republican challenger Tim Sheehy has called cryptocurrencies "the future of finance and the Internet." Meanwhile, current Democratic Senator Jon Tester said "Meet the press" in 2022 that cryptocurrency did not "pass the smell test." Reportedly, also called crypto "bull----", according to Semafor.

But as Tester fights one of the toughest re-election fights in the Senate, his attitude toward cryptocurrencies appears to be changing.

Tester told reporters that he is keeping an open mind about several cryptocurrency bills before the Senate.

"It's 21st century stuff," Tester told reporters June 12 at the Capitol. "I also thought fax machines were stupid."

This change in mentality has also been reflected in the votes. Tester was one of 11 Democrats vote to repeal SEC guidance on crypto That was criticized by the industry.

Democratic Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Jackie Rosen of Nevada, who also face tough re-election battles, voted in favor of the bill.

In the House, Rep. Elisa Slotkin, D-Mich., who is running for an open Senate seat, voted to repeal the SEC guidance and another bill. establish a market structure for digital assets.

However, it remains to be seen what role cryptocurrencies will play in the November election and how many votes will ultimately be influenced by the candidates' positions on cryptocurrencies.

A annual survey published in May by the Federal Reserve found that about 7%, or approximately 18 million American adults, owned or used cryptocurrencies over the past year. That figure is 5 percentage points lower than the same survey reported in 2021.

Issues like the economy, immigration, and abortion affect more people, by an order of magnitude, than cryptocurrencies. In fact, the relatively small group of cryptocurrency users is something that the industry's political ad creators seem to be aware of.

Fairshake-funded ads deliver messages that are typically less about a candidate's support or opposition to cryptocurrencies, and more about broader issues that resonate with voters, such as fairness and integrity.

During the California primary season, a fair shake advertisement targeted Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., who was running for an open Senate seat, as a “fake” and sought to link her to a corrupt company. Fairshake spent $9.7 million on the race.

Porter ultimately lost to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is widely considered more cryptocurrency-friendly than Porter.