The cryptocurrency sector has notched a notable milestone in the just-concluded U.S. election, with more than 90% of industry-backed candidates sweeping through Congressional races.
The performance comes after crypto Political Action Committees (PACs) raised more than $238 million for the candidates through corporate contributions and personal donations from major players in the space.
Impressive Wins, Few Losses
According to Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett, with most vote counting done, Fairshake and its affiliated PACs, Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs, have secured victories in 52 races, suffered one general election loss, and faced four defeats during primaries.
Additionally, vote counting is ongoing in five races. Three crypto candidates are reportedly losing, while two are leading in their respective polls.
One of the most significant wins for the crypto PACs was the ouster of digital asset critic Sherrod Brown, who lost in Ohio to blockchain entrepreneur Bernie Moreno. Brown, who until his defeat was the Senate Banking Chair, was undone by a $40 million campaign that saw one PAC pay for five prime-time ads to boost Moreno’s visibility.
While he had initially dismissed the threat of the crypto industry’s support for Moreno, Brown was left ruing his stance after the relatively unknown luxury car dealer beat him by more than 211,000 votes to clinch the Ohio Senate seat.
Among the setbacks was the high-profile defeat of Democratic incumbent Dr. Yadira Caraveo in Colorado’s 8th District. Fairshake reportedly invested more than $2 million in supporting her campaign, but GOP challenger Gabe Evans emerged victorious.
The Republican, who Stand With Crypto’s website had marked as having “no stance on crypto,” beat the “strongly” pro-crypto Caraveo by about 2,500 votes. According to Terrett, the congresswoman conceded her race to Evans with about 97% of votes already counted.
Massive Spending, Clear Objectives
Analyses by blockchain data firm Breadcrumbs and Fox Business indicate that the crypto industry made a deliberate effort to reshape Washington’s outlook on cryptocurrencies, channeling its financial muscle to support multiple pro-crypto candidates from either side of the American political divide.
The biggest contributors included Coinbase, Ripple, and venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z. Together, the three invested $160 million into a few select super PACs to support politicians advocating for favorable crypto regulatory frameworks.
Coinbase alone reportedly donated $75 million to the crypto PACs, including a new $25 million pledge for the next midterm elections slated for 2026.
Ripple and Coinbase have been on the wrong end of enforcement actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The former was fined $125 million after being found guilty of securities laws infractions, even though it won certain aspects of the case, specifically that programmatic sales of its XRP tokens were not in breach of the said laws.
Overall, Stand With Crypto says that 262 pro-crypto lawmakers made it to Congress, against a reported 123 who held the contrary view.
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