“Make Bitcoin Great Again” hats are on sale at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, Saturday, July 27, 2024. Taking a friendlier stance The industry is becoming an influential player in the 2024 presidential election by making large donations to political action committees.
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As the 2024 elections enter the home stretch, a leading pro-cryptocurrency super PAC has spent a large portion of its final contributions on closing House races as part of an effort to push candidates favorable to the group’s agenda to victory.
Fairshake, one of the top spenders of any industry this election cycle, distributed donations Nearly $29 million in SeptemberThat’s according to data released to the public by the Federal Election Commission on Sunday. in, US$20 million The money went to two affiliated PACs: $15 million to Defend American Jobs PAC, a single-issue committee focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain policy that favors Republicans; Support progressive organizations that support Democrats.
Most of Fairshake’s remaining $8.8 million last month was spent on House races in New York, Nevada and California, according to FEC data compiled by cryptocurrency market and blockchain analyst James Delmore and verified by CNBC.
Several of these games are considered throw Depend on cook political report. The winners include Southern California Republicans David G. Valadao and Michael Garcia, both of whom retained their seats in tight races. They received $1.3 million and $1 million respectively.
“Fairshake’s donations to California candidates are important not only for getting pro-cryptocurrency candidates elected to House seats, but also because many cryptocurrency companies are still located in California,” Delmore said. “California needs all the pro-crypto politicians they can find.”
also, Fershak gave Pay more than $1.9 million to Rep. Patrick Ryan (D-N.Y.), more than $1.7 million to Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), and more than $1.7 million to Rep. Angela Dawn Clay Ger (D-Minn.) paid nearly $1 million. The remaining cash was donated to candidates in Illinois, Colorado, Oregon, Iowa and Arkansas.
Of the House donations, $6.2 million went to Democratic candidates and $2.3 million went to Republican candidates. During the September window, Protect Progress donated more than $10 million each to Democrats in Senate races in Arizona and Michigan.
In the 2024 cycle, political donations from or in support of the crypto industry reached approximately $190 million, with donations coming from some of the industry’s biggest names. An August report from Public Citizen found that cryptocurrency companies accounted for nearly half of total corporate donations this election cycle.
Cryptocurrency groups spent more than $130 million on congressional races in this year’s elections, including primaries, according to FEC data.
Delmore told CNBC that donations to Fairshake have been tepid over the past few months.
September, The group added about $1.1 million, including $800,000 from cryptocurrency firm Consensys (which was sued by the SEC in June) and $1,000 from Moonsong Labs CEO Derek Yoo.
In total, Fairshake has raised more than $160 million and paid more than $37 million to support House candidates and run ads against Katie Porter, a Democrat who lost a California Senate primary. More than $84 million was transferred to Fairshake-affiliated PACs.
watch: Crypto PAC funds support Utah Senate candidates and others across the U.S.