Political Donations From Crypto Industry Already Top 2020 Cycle

In this edition of the Bloomberg Crypto newsletter, Bill Allison follows the money from the pockets of wealthy crypto donors into the coffers of political candidates.

Crypto industry donors have poured $94 million into federal political committees since 2023, already topping the $83 million they gave in the previous election cycle while making a show of supporting their friends in Congress.

The biggest political donors in the country include numerous backers of the crypto industry, according to OpenSecrets, such as current top donor Jeffrey Yass of Susquehanna International Group, whose interests run from ByteDance to Bitcoin. The self-described libertarian donor who backs Republicans has already given $70 million, with months to go before Election Day.

Fairshake and two affiliated super PACs, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress, have combined to raise $85 million. (Note: There are bigger numbers floating around out there, however we are adjusting Fairshake's fundraising total to remove double-counting of in-kind donations made in cryptocurrency and their conversion to dollars.)

Donors include venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who’ve each given Fairshake $9 million; billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who each donated $2.5 million; and Coinbase Global Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong, who contributed $1 million. His company also chucked in $20.5 million while Ripple Labs donated $20 million.