Cryptocurrency sector-backed super political action committees (PACs) have become one of the top three fundraisers in the 2024 election season.
With more than $102 million raised, these groups are behind only the super PAC backing Ron DeSantis’ failed presidential campaign and the one backing Democratic Senate candidates, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen said in a report released Monday (May 6).
More than half of the funds raised by the crypto super PACs, about $54 million, comes from direct corporate expenditures from companies like Coinbase and Ripple Labs, according to the report. The rest comes from crypto executives and venture capitalists like the founders of Andreessen Horowitz, Gemini founders Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, per the report.
“Out of the six 2024 primaries in which crypto super PACs intervened and which are now over, only one crypto-backed candidate has lost,” Public Citizen said in a Monday press release about the report. “Eleven primary races that include crypto-backed candidates remain. The crypto super PACs have pledged to spend in general election Senate races in the battleground states of Ohio and Montana.”
In those two races, the Democratic incumbents have been critical of the crypto sector, according to the report.
Both of these candidates, Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester, sit on the Senate Banking Committee and have been critical of crypto, pointing to its use by Hamas and Lazarus Group, Reuters reported Monday.
The crypto super PACs have been raising money in hopes of influencing policies at a time when both legislators and regulators are scrutinizing the crypto industry, the Reuters report said.
It was reported in December that industry experts were predicting that the crypto industry’s lobbying spending would continue to increase in 2024 after reaching a record high in the first three quarters of 2023.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said at an investor conference in June that the company would seek a legislative solution while battling a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“Even as we’re managing the litigation, we are equally eager to engage in pressing legislative solutions,” Grewal said at the time.
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