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Crypto's political power supercharged with $1
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Crypto's political power supercharged with $1
Crypto's political power supercharged with $193 million in Fairshake, thanks to new cash
8 min read
Crypto's political power supercharged with $193 million in Fairshake, thanks to new cash
The industry's chief campaign-finance arm got another $49 million and already outpaces what it had in the last U.S. congressional races, when it aided dozens of wins.
By Jesse Hamilton|Edited by Nikhilesh De
Jan 28, 2026, 7:00 p.m.
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Crypto PAC Fairshake is holding $193 million for the midterm elections, it says. (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)
What to know:
- Ripple and a16z have contributed another $49 million between them to further bolster the war chest of the Fairshake super PAC, bringing its cash-on-hand total to $193 million, the group said.
- The crypto industry, which outspent other industries in 2024 to help dozens of pro-crypto congressional candidates win office, has never had this much money to deploy.
With another $25 million from Ripple and $24 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the crypto industry's chief campaign-finance fund, the Fairshake political action committee, is amassing unprecedented firepower for this year's midterm congressional elections.
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The crypto super PAC that exploded onto the scene in the last political cycle is set to report it has $193 million on-hand, according to a Wednesday statement. If it were to spend that money this year, it would likely stand among the top five PACs in the country, rivaling the 2024 tallies of the parties' own top campaign-finance organizations. It was already ranked as the sixth biggest money-raiser among PACs in the previous cycle.
Since 2024, the levels of cash Fairshake and its affiliated PACs devoted to the election of 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 are deciding the legislative fate of the industry are well aware that those supporting friendly legislation will probably benefit from considerable campaign help while those opposing will face potentially millions of dollars in opposition ads.
"With the midterms approaching, we are united behind our mission, with Fairshake continuing 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 up the financial system to more Americans."
As Fairshake announces this war chest that outpaces the amounts it gathered in the last elections, members of the Senate are preparing for a Thursday hearing over 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 are expecting it to proceed only along partisan lines, without Democratic support.
The negotiations on the bill had so far been unable to find compromise over a number of points that Democrats had requested. Two of them — a ban on senior government officials (including the U.S. president) profiting from the crypto industry and a requirement that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission be fully staffed with commissioners before policy moves forward — have received pushback from the White House.
Fairshake aided more than 50 candidates' wins in the previous congressional cycle, sometimes devoting tens of millions in the most pivotal Senate battles. In one of those, former Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who'd led the Senate Banking Committee and never allowed crypto legislation to advance, 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 engage in special elections as they emerged, adding a handful of further crypto supporters to the congressional roster. As a super PAC, it spends only on outside ads that aren't directly affiliated with the candidates' campaigns, and Fairshake's ads rarely mention crypto at all.
Even without Fairshake spending money, yet, Washington is aware of the cash stockpile. Apart from the major new additions from Ripple and a16z, Coinbase had also contributed an additional $25 million last year. Those three companies have been the primary drivers of this effort, which isn't the only one from the industry.
In September, the new Fellowship PAC announced it had $100 million in commitments for contributing to pro-crypto candidates that will aid President Donald Trump's digital assets agenda, declaring the super PAC's "mission is defined by transparency and trust." But it has declined to identify its supporters or to respond to requests for information about its plans, and nothing has yet been made public about its finances other than its 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 the expectations that Democrats will win a majority in at least one of the chambers of Congress this year.
In current betting on Polymarket, the prediction markets give Democrats a 79% chance to get the majority in the House of Representatives, which would mean they'd control the committee chairmanships and the floor agenda.
The online bets put the Democrats at a 36% chance of winning the Senate. But the party only needs one chamber to get leverage over crypto legislation next year, including the market structure bill, if it hasn't yet passed.
Read More: Fairshake: Crypto Titans Use Old-School Dollars to Turn Tide in Congress
Fairshakecampaign contributionsRippleA16z cryptoU.S. Political Elections
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