The crypto industry is pouring serious cash into the 2024 US elections. Big players in the sector are shelling out unprecedented amounts of money to make sure their interests are heard.
Political donations tied to the crypto industry have reached $190 million. Leading the pack are the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, with a combined contribution of over $10 million.
These brothers, who made their fortune in crypto, are the biggest individual donors from the crypto industry this election cycle.
Their donations include about $1.7 million in Bitcoin to the Trump 47 Committee, a group supporting former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
On top of that, they’ve contributed over $700,000 to the pro-Trump Make America Great Again PAC, $250,000 each to the pro-Trump America PAC, and $4.9 million to the bipartisan Fairshake PAC, a group pushing for crypto-friendly policies.
Executives from Ripple have collectively donated more than $3 million to various candidates and super PACs.
Chris Larsen, co-founder of Ripple, has made nearly $2.4 million in donations, mostly to support Democratic candidates.
CEO Brad Garlinghouse has also contributed more than $384,000 to many campaigns, including those of Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and John Deaton, the pro-crypto Republican opposing the anti-crypto Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts.
Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, has also thrown $300,000 at the Trump 47 Committee.
During a Trump fundraiser in June at David Sacks’ mansion in San Francisco, Stuart shared his frustration with the SEC.
Ripple has spent over $100 million fighting a civil lawsuit brought by the SEC. Under Gary Gensler, the regulator has gone after some of the biggest names in the industry.
Coinbase, Binance and Kraken, two of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, have been targeted so many times.
But instead of backing down, executives from both companies are ramping up their political donations.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has given over $1.3 million to a mix of PACs, including Fairshake and JD Vance for Senate Inc.
He’s also supported both Democratic and Republican candidates running for seats in Congress.
Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, has attended at least two Trump fundraisers this year, including one during the Nashville Bitcoin event.
Kraken co-founder and chairman Jesse Powell has donated just over $1 million to Trump.
These guys are clearly playing both sides of the aisle, making sure that no matter which party takes power, their interests will be well-represented.
Phil Potter, the former strategy chief at Bitfinex, has donated more than $1.6 million. Multicoin Capital’s Kyle Samani has contributed $878,600.
Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam has given $735,400, and Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson has put in $1.4 million.
Even executives from companies like Solana, BitGo, and Xapo Bank are getting involved. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakavenko has donated $67,100, while BitGo CEO Mike Belshe has put in $119,825.
Xapo Bank’s founder Wences Casares has put in $374,899. Not all PACs have been so lucky though.
According to analyst James Delmore, no known donations in crypto have been made to Future Forward PAC, which is supporting Kamala Harris.
The PAC started accepting crypto donations through Coinbase Commerce but hasn’t seen much action yet. Future Forward did not respond to Cryptopolitan’s request for comments.
The Harris campaign, however, has had a major fundraising surge since Joe Biden stepped out of the race. Her team raised $47 million in just 24 hours after her debate with Trump.
A lot has changed over the past five years regarding crypto lobbying. In 2020, most of the donations came from now-disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
SBF, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for stealing $8 billion from his customers, was a major player in Democratic donations.
But in 2024, the donor list is much more spread out, with contributions coming from both Republicans and Democrats.
A Public Citizen report last month confirmed that nearly half of all the corporate money in this election comes from the crypto industry.
Trump has also reportedly made over $20 million in sales from NFTs, while Trump-branded meme tokens have flooded the market.
Crypto-based betting platform Polymarket has seen $1.1 billion in bets placed on several election outcomes.
So far, $922 million in bets have been placed on who will win the election, with another $206 million wagered on who will win the popular vote.
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