With an additional $25 million from Ripple and $24 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the crypto industry’s leading campaign finance fund, Fairshake political action committee, is gathering unprecedented firepower for this year’s midterm congressional elections.
The crypto super PAC that exploded onto the scene in the last political cycle is set to report that it has $193 million on hand, according to a Wednesday statement. If it were to spend that money this year, it would likely rank among the top five PACs in the country, rivaling the 2024 numbers for the parties’ own top campaign finance organizations. It already ranked as the sixth-biggest fundraiser among PACs in the previous cycle.
Since 2024, the level of cash Fairshake and its affiliated PACs have devoted to electing pro-crypto members of Congress has been an undeniable element in the level of political support the industry has been able to muster. The lawmakers who decide the industry’s legislative fate are well aware that those who support friendly legislation are likely to benefit from significant campaign aid, while those who oppose it will face potentially millions of dollars in opposition ads.
“As the midterms approach, we are united behind our mission as Fairshake continues to oppose anti-crypto politics and support pro-crypto leaders,” Fairshake spokesman Josh Vlasto said in a statement. “The time is now to protect consumers, cultivate American innovation, and open the financial system to more Americans.”
As Fairshake announces this war chest, which exceeds the sums it collected in the last election, members of the Senate prepare for a Thursday hearing on the industry’s most important legislative initiative. The Senate Agriculture Committee is set to consider changes and potentially advance the crypto market structure bill, but industry insiders expect it to proceed only along partisan lines without Democratic support.
Negotiations on the bill had so far been unable to find a compromise on a number of points that Democrats had requested. Two of them — a ban on senior officials (including the US president) profiting from the crypto industry and a requirement that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission be fully staffed with commissioners before the policy moves forward — have drawn pushback from the White House.
Fairshake helped more than 50 candidates win in the previous congressional cycle, sometimes spending tens of thousands in the most crucial Senate races. In one of them, former Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who had chaired the Senate Banking Committee and never allowed crypto legislation to come forward, was defeated.
After those elections, where the PAC drew a fairly even line between the numbers it supported in each party, it continued to participate in special elections as they came up, adding a handful of additional crypto supporters to the congressional slate. As a super PAC, it only spends on outside ads not directly connected to the candidates’ campaigns, and Fairshake’s ads rarely mention crypto at all.
Even without Fairshake spending money, Washington is still aware of the cash balance. Besides the big new additions from Ripple and a16z, Coinbase had also contributed another $25 million last year. These three companies have been the primary driving forces behind this effort, which is not the only one from the industry.
In September, the new Fellowship PAC announced it had $100 million in commitments to contribute to pro-crypto candidates who will help President Donald Trump’s digital asset agenda, declaring that the super PAC’s “mission is defined by transparency and trust.” But it has declined to identify its supporters or respond to requests for information about its plans, and nothing has yet been released about its finances beyond its federal registration.
The brothers behind Gemini, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, also announced $21 million last year to another super PAC, the Digital Freedom Fund, to support Republican candidates and combat expectations that Democrats will win a majority in at least one chamber of Congress this year.
In the current betting on Polymarket, the prediction markets give the Democrats a 79% chance of winning the majority in the House of Representatives, which would mean they would control the committee chairs and the floor agenda.
The online betting gives the Democrats a 36% chance of winning the Senate. But the party only needs one chamber to influence crypto legislation next year, including the market structure bill if it hasn’t yet passed.
Read more: Fairshake: Crypto Titans are using old-school dollars to turn the tide in Congress
