The U.S. cryptocurrency industry has flexed its campaign finance might to help unseat old leaders and elevate new allies in Texas and other states as the congressional midterm season approaches its full potential, although the arrival of new political action committees may challenge the sector’s meticulous bipartisanship.
Fairshake is still an unrivaled channel for securing millions of old-fashioned US dollars to run primary elections, but other crypto-super PAC names have slipped into the conversation, growing stronger in the wake of this week’s Texas primaries. And collective crypto spending is already contributing to real consequences for the next Congress.
The latest Texas runoffs have illustrated the crypto industry’s growing reach in politics, with Fairshake targeting and helping to oust a longtime Democratic member of the House of Representatives, crypto critic Al Green, and one of the new PACs supporting a Republican Senate candidate. The Fellowship super PAC, associated with Tether and Cantor Fitzgerald, backed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s victory against the Republican incumbent with $500,000.
Although House races are often won or lost on hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding, Fairshake spent $6.5 million to advance U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee in Green’s place. The Blockchain Leadership Fund (established recently with inaugural donations from Anchorage Digital and Chainlink) has also supported and donated to Menefee, who won an unusual runoff Tuesday from two opposing incumbent candidates through redistricting and is expected to win the November general election in his Democratic-dominated district.
In the Texas primary, Fairshake also backed a slate of Republicans seeking House seats, including Alex Mealer ($453,000), Tom Sell ($426,000), Carlos De La Cruz ($607,000) and Jon Bonck ($348,000) – scoring dominant victories in districts generally considered likely to go to Republicans later this year.
But the elimination of House Financial Services Committee member Al Green is seen by crypto insiders as a major victory. Green has criticized the dangers the industry could pose to consumers, and he voted against crypto policy legislation while co-sponsoring a bill to bar President Trump from his personal crypto business interests.
The South wins
The Texas successes add to Fairshake’s recent sweep of the $20 million spent to support primary candidates in Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia. Two of the Republicans in those states were also endorsed by Fellowship: U.S. Rep. Andy Barr in his Senate race in Kentucky and U.S. Rep. Barry Moore’s campaign for Senate in Alabama, which still faces a runoff.
However, the industry has also seen setbacks, most notably in Illinois, where Fairshake spent more than $10 million trying to defeat Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton on her way to winning the Democratic primary in March, meaning a crypto-cross candidate is likely to make it to the Senate next year.
For a crypto industry that has about two dozen separate political lobbying and advocacy organizations and is continually creating new ones, the dominance of a single super PAC is remarkable. However, this doesn’t really come from a unifying sentiment in the industry, but from the fact that a trio of major crypto companies have been willing to throw so much money at politics – major backers Coinbase, Ripple, and a16z.
Those who run Fairshake have consistently refused to answer questions about its decision-making and strategy since the fund’s debut, and a spokesperson declined to comment for this article. But the mega PAC now has a significant track record to demonstrate its strategy, which has involved carefully seeking a balance of Republican and Democratic candidates to provide support. Organizers created two affiliated PACs to operate through: Protect Progress (for Democrats) and Defend American Jobs (for Republicans). And these branches have sought to bolster primary election victories, particularly in districts or states in which one party is dominant and where primaries will essentially decide who wins the November general election.
The party balance could tip this year, however, judging by the Republican affiliate’s greater funding in the most recent Federal Election Commission filings. But even as his support for Republican candidates becomes more prominent, Fairshake has demonstrated that his goal has nothing to do with traditional political ideology and everything to do with crypto-friendly politics. He buys ads for his favorite candidates, using whatever political messages help the Republican or Democrat get elected – almost never mentioning crypto.
The crypto industry’s campaign funding is not lost on members of Congress currently trying to craft digital asset policy, including the Senate’s bipartisan effort to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that represents the primary policy goal of crypto lobbyists. But the strategy to shore up bipartisan crypto support on Capitol Hill is not the apparent goal of a few other PACs.
Republican leaning
Gemini-top brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss created the Digital Freedom Fund with $21 million to support Republican candidates and President Donald Trump’s crypto agenda, although the PAC has yet to burst onto the political scene.
And the new Fellowship PAC, created with about $11 million — a far cry from the $100 million originally pledged — brought only Republican support in several races. All but two of Fellowship’s Republican nominees have Trump’s personal support, with the other two in crowded areas in which the president has not made a choice. The PAC’s alignment with the president’s policies was hinted at in the first press release touting its founding in support of what the administration had begun to implement on crypto policy. However, its president said he was not completely committed to supporting the Republican Party.
“The Fellowship will also provide bipartisan support,” Jesse Spiro, chairman of the super PAC, said on stage at Consensus Miami 2026 earlier this month. “It’s not partisan. In that sense, these will be candidates who will support innovation in the United States, who will support crypto, who will support the ecosystem.”
What is less certain is the nature of his support. Although foreign companies cannot participate directly in U.S. elections, the fund has been associated with Tether since its beginnings, when an anonymous press release promised it would be a $100 million campaign finance giant that champions transparency. Since then, a Tether executive, Spiro, has become president, but its treasurer and main opening contribution came from Cantor Fitzgerald, Tether’s U.S. financial partner that manages the stablecoin leader’s reserves.
So far, the millions of ads purchased for Republicans (the largest, $629,000, going to Barr in Kentucky) have come through Nxum Group, a company co-founded by US Tether CEO Bo Hines (a former Trump crypto advisor). Nxum has launched a number of ads across the country, and some of those produced by the young political company have apparently delved into AI-based video production.
Spiro did not respond to messages seeking comment. The PAC’s federal records indicate it may have spent most of its opening funds.
The industry’s Republican focus outside of Fairshake comes at a time when the party is grappling with the reckoning of the midterm elections. Trump’s declining popularity in the polls has reduced the party’s already fragile chances of retaining its majority in the House next year. It’s possible that industry-backed Republicans in this year’s elections will find themselves in the congressional minority next year and less able to direct crypto policy.
The best from market prediction platform Kalshi (whose regulatory fate could be influenced by these political outcomes) puts Democrats at a 77% chance of winning the House majority. They suggest that the tougher path the Democratic Party is taking to win enough Senate seats puts its chances of winning a majority in the upper chamber at 46 percent.
In line with the industry’s initial strategy to support candidates from both parties, the Blockchain Leadership Fund backed by Anchorage Digital and Chainlink has had modest beginnings thus far, focused on smaller organic contributions directly to candidates’ own campaigns.
Its president, Jennifer Holdsworth, told CoinDesk that the fund was “proud to support several candidates who won their primaries yesterday.” She said the result clearly showed that “voters want leaders who will keep innovation, jobs and digital asset opportunities here at home.”
Anchorage Digital also contributed financially to the scholarship. Kevin Wysocki, the crypto bank’s head of policy, said its engagement with both PACs aims to reflect its “commitment to investing in bipartisan policy outcomes.”
“Crypto’s biggest legislative victories – including the enactment of the GENIUS Act – have come from thoughtful leadership from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle,” he said in a statement to CoinDesk.
Other crypto interests, the Solana Policy Institute and Multicoin Capital, have partially backed a separate PAC – the Sentinel Action Fund. Sentinel has launched an aggressive $8 million spending campaign against Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown’s bid to return to the U.S. Senate, where he previously led the Senate Banking Committee and blocked crypto legislation. Most recently, he supported Republican Mike Rogers’ bid for Michigan Senate with spending of nearly $900,000.
But none of the other PACs come remotely close to the size of Fairshake, which had $193 million in spending power before the election season began. It is not only the leading crypto campaign fund, but also a leading super PAC across all US industries and political organizations.
As Green, a veteran of the U.S. House of Representatives, came under fire this week, a Fairshake spokesperson, Geoff Vetter, called it proof that “anti-crypto hostility comes with consequences.” It’s a message that industry money is making clear, even as lawmakers running for office this year continue to work on (or oppose) crypto legislation.
