Cryptocurrency spending on election hits $190 million, led by Winklevoss twins | Real Time Headlines

Cameron and Taylor Winklevoss is the largest individual cryptocurrency donor this election cycle, That totaled $10.1 million, or just over $5 million per person, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by cryptocurrency market and blockchain analyst James Delmore and independently verified by CNBC.

With 50 days until the November election, political donations from or in support of the cryptocurrency industry have reached an estimated $190 million, as some of the industry’s biggest names opened their digital wallets to help elect candidates sympathetic to them.

The Winklevoss twins donated a total of approximately $1.7 million Bitcoin To the Trump 47 Committee, Fundraising for Republican predecessors President Donald Trumpdonated a total of more than $700,000 to the “Make America Great Again” political action committee supporting Trump, $250,000 each to the US PAC supporting Trump, and $4.9 million to the bipartisan Fairshake PAC that supports cryptocurrency.

Executives at blockchain giant Ripple Labs have collectively donated more than $3 million to candidate committees and super PACs so far this cycle, said co-founder Chris Larson Nearly US$2.4 million was donated, Mainly to help Democratic candidates. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Has donated more than $384,000 to multiple PACs and candidates, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Republican John Deaton Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts. The company’s chief legal officer, Stewart Alderottidonated $300,000 to the Trump 47 Committee.

at a fundraising event Trump in June, Alderotti Ripple explained how More than $100 million in litigation has been spent defending itself against civil charges brought by the SEC. The event was held at a San Francisco venture capitalist’s mansion david sachs.

The Winklevoss twins, Coinbase and Ripple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

One month after the San Francisco fundraiser, Trump promises SEC Chairman Gary Gensler would be fired if elected, although the president does not have the authority to fire members of independent commissions without cause. While the incoming president may remove Gensler as chairman, he will continue to serve as commissioner until the end of his term.

Under Gensler’s leadership, the SEC has taken on major industry players, including Centralized Cryptocurrency Exchange Kraken and Coin library.

Executives at both companies are heavily invested in this cycle. Coin library CEO Brian Armstrong More than $1.3 million has been donated to PACs such as Fairshake and J.D. Vance for Senator Inc. and directly to Democrats and Republicans running for House and Senate seats. Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal attended at least two Trump fundraisers, including one in Nashville On the sidelines of the biggest Bitcoin event of the year.

Co-founder and Chairman of Kraken Jesse Powell Has donated more than $1 million to the Trump campaign.

Individual crypto contributors include former Bitfinex head of strategy Phil Porter (over $1.6 million), Multicoin Capital Kelsamani ($878,600), Paradigm co-founder Fred Essam ($735,400), Partner, Union Square Ventures Fred Wilson ($1.4 million), CEO and co-founder of Paxos Charles Cascarella ($198,500), CEO of BitGo Mike Belsh ($119,825), Co-founder of Solana Anatoly Yakavinko ($67,100), founder of Xapo Bank, Gibraltar Wences Casares ($374,899).

According to Delmore’s report, there have been no known cryptocurrency donations to the Future Forward PAC, which is raising funds for Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. Future Forward started accepting cryptocurrency donations this month through a partnership with Coinbase Commerce. The donation page on the website still does not appear to offer an encryption option.

CNBC reached out to two representatives of Future Forward listed in PAC’s FEC filing to ask about cryptocurrency donation statistics to date and when it plans to add cryptocurrency payment options to its website. They did not respond immediately.

Since President Biden dropped out of the race, Harris’ fundraising efforts have kicked off, and her campaign $47 million raised in first 24 hours After her first and perhaps only debate against Trump Tuesday.

Delmore, who has been compiling a report on cryptocurrency donations in the 2024 elections for blockchain analytics platform Breadcrumbs, told CNBC that industry spending is nearly double what it was in the midterms — with more than $190 million spent in the 2024 elections compared to the midterms. Nearly twice as high as in the mid-term. $98 million allocated for 2022 election. That’s nearly 13 times the $15 million spent in 2020 – a figure based on a combination of FEC and OpenSecrets filings.

This year’s list of contributors is stronger and more diverse, unlike the past two election cycles, which were marked by spending by now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX and founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 years in prison He was imprisoned in March for stealing $8 billion worth of customer funds through FTX.

“The majority of cryptocurrency donations in 2022 came from FTX and SBF, and almost all went to Democrats or PACs supporting Democrats,” Delmore said.

Delmore said spending is more balanced between the two parties, but “there’s definitely more spending by Republican candidates and political action committees that support Republicans and oppose Democrats.”

people last month’s report Research has found that nearly half of all corporate money flowing into this year’s elections came from the cryptocurrency industry, with Coinbase and Ripple leading the way.

There is a lot of overlap between the largest businesses in the cryptocurrency space and individual consumers.

Fairshake is one of the top spending PACs this year, with most of its funding traceable to four sources: Coinbase, Ripple, Jump Crypto and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Delmore’s research expanded the category to include all cryptocurrencies and found billions of dollars at play, including more than $20 million in sales from Trump’s non-fungible tokens (NFTs), According to BloombergTrump-branded meme tokens, $190 million in political donations from or supporting cryptocurrencies, and another $1.1 billion bet on the Polymarket platform.

To date, US$922 million has been invested bet Determined who will be the election winner, another $206 million spent who will win the popular vote.

Electing pro-crypto candidates ultimately depends on the outcome of the vote.

this Stand with the Cryptocurrency AllianceProject Vote, launched by Coinbase last year, is currently conducting cross-country bus tours through swing states to help people register to vote. The event culminated with an event in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday that included speeches from members of Coinbase’s top management and a live performance by music group The Chainsmokers.

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