With another $25 million from Ripple and $24 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the crypto industry’s leading campaign finance fund, the Fairshake political action committee, is amassing unprecedented firepower for this year’s congressional midterm elections.
The crypto super PAC that exploded onto the scene during the last political cycle is expected to report that it has $193 million on hand, according to a statement released Wednesday. If he were to spend that money this year, he would likely be among the top five PACs in the country, rivaling the 2024 tallies of major party campaign finance organizations. It was already ranked sixth among PACs in fundraising during the previous cycle.
Since 2024, the levels of money Fairshake and its affiliated PACs have devoted to electing pro-crypto members of Congress have been an undeniable component of the level of political support the industry has been able to muster. Lawmakers who decide the industry’s legislative fate are well aware that those who support favorable legislation will likely get considerable campaign help, while those who oppose it will potentially face millions of dollars in opposition ads.
“As the midterm elections approach, we are united behind our mission, with Fairshake continuing to oppose anti-crypto policies and support pro-crypto leaders,” Fairshake spokesperson Josh Vlasto said in a statement. “Now is the time to protect consumers, cultivate American innovation, and open the financial system to more Americans.”
As Fairshake announces this war chest that exceeds the amounts raised in the last election, members of the Senate are preparing for a hearing Thursday on the industry’s most important legislative initiative. The Senate Agriculture Committee is set to consider amendments and potentially advance the crypto market structure bill, but industry insiders expect it to proceed purely along partisan lines, without support from Democrats.
Negotiations on the bill have so far failed to find a compromise on a number of points requested by Democrats. Two of them – the ban on high-ranking government officials (including the US president) profiting from the crypto industry and the requirement that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission be fully staffed with commissioners before the policy moves forward – have been pushed back by the White House.
Fairshake helped win more than 50 candidates during the previous congressional cycle, sometimes pouring tens of millions into the most crucial Senate battles. In one, former Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who had led the Senate Banking Committee and never allowed crypto legislation to move forward, was defeated.
After those elections, in which the PAC straddled a fairly even line between the numbers it supported in each party, it continued to participate in special elections as they arose, adding a handful of other crypto supporters to the congressional roster. As a super PAC, it spends only on outside ads that are not directly affiliated with candidates’ campaigns, and Fairshake’s ads rarely mention crypto.
Even without Fairshake spending money, Washington is aware of the cash stockpile. In addition to major new additions from Ripple and a16z, Coinbase also contributed an additional $25 million last year. These three companies were the main drivers of this effort, which is not the only one in the sector.
In September, the new Fellowship PAC announced that it had committed $100 million to contribute to pro-crypto candidates who will contribute to President Donald Trump’s digital assets agenda, stating that “the super PAC’s mission is defined by transparency and trust.” But he has refused to identify his supporters or respond to requests for information about his plans, and nothing has yet been made public about his finances aside from his federal registration.
The brothers behind Gemini, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, also announced $21 million last year for another super PAC, the Digital Freedom Fund, to support Republican candidates and combat expectations that Democrats would gain a majority in at least one chamber of Congress this year.
In current Polymarket betting, prediction markets give Democrats a 79% chance of winning a majority in the House of Representatives, which would mean they would control committee chairs and the agenda.
Online betting gives Democrats a 36% chance of winning the Senate. But the party only needs one chamber to gain leverage on crypto legislation next year, including the market structure bill, if it has not yet passed.
Read more: Fairshake: Crypto Titans Use Old-School Dollars to Turn the Tide in Congress
