How will recent Supreme Court decisions affect the crypto world? Also, more absurdity from the crypto lobby, and some new regulatory actions.
Coinbase's "Stand With Crypto" PAC website is now confirming what I reported earlier.
More than 99% of the amount they claimed was raised by this supposedly "grassroots" PAC is in fact massive corporate contributions to the FairShake super PAC.
The two candidates in today’s primaries that received substantial backing from cryptocurrency PACs both won their primaries.
1. John Curtis defeated Trent Staggs in the Republican Utah Senate primary, with the help of $1.7 million in crypto industry funding.
2. George Latimer defeated Jamaal Bowman in the Democratic primary for NY H-16, with the help of $2 million in crypto industry funding.
Ads run by these PACs made no mention of crypto or technology. In the NY race, ads from Fairshake seemed to align very closely with AIPAC’s aggressive campaign against Bowman, echoing their messaging accusing him of antisemitism.
“Defend American Jobs” was the PAC splashing out in the Utah race. They’re the Republican-focused crypto super PAC; “Protect Progress” is the Democrat counterpart.
Though Fairshake (nominally nonpartisan, and by far the highest fundraiser of the crypto PACs) previously made identical donations to both, they’ve just made another $5 million donation to Defend American Jobs without a corresponding donation to Protect Progress.
Defend American Jobs has raised $14.7 million so far this cycle; Protect Progress has raised $10.3 million.
Here's a glimpse at the spending in each race.
Other outside spending for Curtis mostly came from a super PAC called Conservative Values for Utah, with Defend American Jobs pitching in $5M last minute.
And as I mentioned, Bowman’s other opposition primarily came from AIPAC's UDP.
The crypto industry jumps on the Trump train.
The cryptocurrency industry Super PAC Fairshake is now #1 out of all Super PACs by total funds raised.
They've raised more than $175 million to influence upcoming elections in the US, and have more than $100 million of it still waiting to deploy.
This month alone:
$25M from Andreessen Horowitz
$25M from Coinbase
$25M from Ripple
$10M from Jump Crypto
Total spending this election cycle:
Andreessen Horowitz: $48.9M
Coinbase: $52M
Ripple: $44.8M
Jump Crypto: $15M
So what gives? Why the hell would the famously liberal denizens of Silicon Valley and the idealistic dreamers behind Bitcoin and AI possibly be in the tank for such a nakedly fascistic candidate? … is a question you would only ask if you’ve been asleep for the past 15 years.
Are US legislators warming to crypto? The SEC approves Ethereum ETPs, and a crypto bill gets through the House.
Coinbase’s “Stand With Crypto” PAC claims to have raised $87 million, but their donations list totals up to only $1,176,900. They seem to be double-counting corporate contributions to super PACs to overstate how much their “community” supports this supposedly grassroots project.
The list trails off at donations of $44.67, so there could be additional smaller donations not shown on the page, but not more than $85 million’s worth.
The Stand With Crypto PAC was registered just days after the April quarterly filing deadline, so they have not yet had to file any receipts with the FEC.
As election season kicks into high gear, we need to watch how cryptocurrency companies are influencing US politics.
"Americans aren't confident in crypto. The crypto industry, however, says crypto is very important to Americans."
great to see such hard-hitting journalism from Politico
