The cryptocurrency industry had raised at least $187 million for the ongoing US election campaign by the end of May. Crypto critic Molly White has compiled this from publicly available data. White has that Website: followthecrypto.org Programmed (open source). It shows how much money has flowed into the largest super PACs that support cryptocurrency-friendly candidates or seek to block pro-consumer protection candidates.
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The largest crypto super PAC is called FairShake and its size is practically the same as Make America Great Again (MAGA), the main super PAC supporting Donald Trump, who is making his fourth attempt at the White House: as of the end of May MAGA has $178.6 million raised, FairShake raised $177.9 million. However, MAGA has already spent much of it, which is why FairShake is clearly ahead in terms of cash supply ($107 million, presumably plus $25 million that is presumably parked at Coinbase, compared to $94 million at MAGA).
Unlimited donations to Super PACs possible
PAC stands for Political Action Committee. These are traditionally campaign funds for political candidates. Maximum contributions per donor apply to these. However, there are no limits for Super PACs. Americans can donate to them without any limits. Super PACs are not officially allowed to coordinate their campaigns with the candidates they support.
So far, FairShake has spent its money mainly on fighting Democratic Party candidates. FairShake invested more than ten million dollars in negative advertising against Democrat Katie Porter alone – with success: the Californian lost the primary and therefore cannot be elected to the US Senate in November. FairShake spent $2 million on advertising against Democrat Jamaal Bowman, who also lost the primary. The New Yorker will definitely not enter the House of Commons.
FairShake provided even more money, $15.5 million, to two other super PACs. Five million to Defend Progress, which aims to support crypto-friendly Democrats, and twice as much to Defend American Jobs, which aims to help crypto-friendly Republicans win elections. It should be noted that the donation amounts shown on Follow the Crypto do not correspond to expenses and cash reserves. This is partly because super PACs have to report their expenses within 48 hours, but their income is only added monthly and with a delay. So there is no data on donations in June, but there is data on election ad expenditures in July.
Opinion changed with Trump!
Crypto industry lobbyists want politicians to believe that the issue of cryptocurrency is very important to voters. The organization Stand With Crypto shows a slightly higher donation amount on its website (since some smaller crypto super PACs are presumably involved). Just under 1.3 million donors donated $179.4 million.
This may be mathematically true, but it leaves the misleading impression of a large popular movement. In fact, most of the money comes from a few crypto giants: FairShare received $46.5 million from crypto exchange Coinbase, $45 million from Ripple Labs, $44 million from venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz, $15 million from Jump Crypto and five million from Winkelvoss Capital Management, and one million each from Kraken, Circle and Union Square Ventures. (These amounts also include donations from the owners or managers of these companies.) In the case of the other two crypto fan super PACs mentioned, most donations are distributed among even fewer companies. Unlike Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, small donors are not significant.
The lobbying has already had an effect on Donald Trump. While he used to be a harsh critic and described cryptocurrencies as fraud and even wanted to shut them down, in 2022 he started issuing NFTs himself. The former president now says, “If you are in favor of crypto you better vote for Trump.” Anyone who wants to promote cryptocurrencies should vote for him.
On the other hand, the outgoing Joe Biden has hardly commented on cryptocurrencies. After all, someone is dedicated Presidential decree from March 2022 The topic of digital assets and blockchain. Biden ordered measures for, among other things, consumer protection, financial stability and the fight against crime, but also “supporting technological advancements to promote the responsible development and use of digital assets”. Nonetheless, the crypto industry has chosen Donald Trump as its hero and Biden as its opponent.
Irrelevant topics
Contrary to what lobbyists claim, US voters show little interest in crypto issues. This is also suggested in a report commissioned by lobby organization Digital Currency Group Survey in six US states Open in which the election result is contested (“swing states”). 80 percent of the 1,201 respondents registered as voters there clearly disagreed with the statement that crypto was an important issue in voting decisions. And the remaining 20 percent are by no means all crypto supporters, as a total of 69 percent of all respondents reported a negative attitude towards cryptocurrencies.
So at first glance it is surprising that election ads funded by FairShake mostly ignore the topic of cryptocurrencies. Even broader topics such as technology or finance hardly take up any space. Rather, completely different arguments are used as to why voters should (not) vote for certain candidates. It is clearly not in the industry’s interest to draw voters’ attention to candidates’ opinions on cryptocurrencies.
is funded by donations Incidentally, Molly White’s transparency project also follows crypto. This proposal, like Molly White’s, is better known Newsletter citation needed Also, Ad-Free.US invites political activists to use the crypto source code to make donations from other industries or interest groups more transparent. However, collecting such data takes time.
(DS)
