Nearly half of all corporate political contributions in the 2024 election cycle came from cryptocurrency companies, according to a Wednesday report from corporate influence watchdog Public Citizen.
Public Citizen’s report, which was based on data provided by government transparency group OpenSecrets, found that, so far, 48% of corporate election spending has come from crypto companies like Ripple and Coinbase. That’s $119 million out of a total of $248 million.
The vast majority of those donations have been funneled into pro-crypto super political action committees (PACs) like Fairshake, a non-partisan super PAC focused on getting crypto-friendly candidates on both sides of the aisle elected – as well as squashing the bids of crypto skeptics.
According to Public Citizen’s report, $107.9 million of the $203 million raised by Fairshake has come directly from crypto companies, the rest from large donations made by deep-pocketed and prominent individuals in the tech and crypto industries including the Winklevoss twins and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.
The author of Public Citizen’s report, research director Rick Claypool, described the crypto industry’s political spending as “unprecedented.” Crypto companies’ direct spending in the past three election cycles totals $129 million, or 15% of all known corporate contributions since 2010, the year that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that corporations have a First Amendment right to make unlimited donations to candidates via PACs.
According to the report, only the fossil fuel industry has outspent crypto companies since 2010, donating a known $162 million to fossil fuel-friendly politicians over the past 14 years.