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Crypto firms have spent $189M so far on 2026 US election, report says
- downrightmike 4mo agoCrypto firms have supplied more than one-third of all corporate money so far in this year's elections Fairshake has received $82 million in contributions this cycle Crypto, AI, big tech and online betting firms have spent $294 million combined on 2026 elections June 30 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency companies have spent $189 million so far to influence the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, outpacing their spending for the previous election cycle, according to a new report, opens new tab from Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization. More than one-third of all corporate money contributed to this year's November elections, and primary elections leading up to them, has come from the crypto industry, making it the top corporate political spender, the group said. The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here. Crypto was also the top corporate donor in the 2024 election cycle, when it contributed $170 million and many of the congressional candidates it boosted won their races. Companies in the artificial intelligence, big tech and online betting sectors have also contributed heavily. Combined with crypto, they have spent $294 million on the 2026 elections so far. In November, the full House of Representatives will be up for reelection, along with roughly a third of the Senate. "The big takeaway is that corporate money is playing a bigger role than ever in our elections, and it's only expanding," said Rick Claypool, a research director at Public Citizen and the author of the report.
- khurs 4mo agoA UK party rising up the charts is caught up in a scandal - crypto guy gave the party leader (personally) £5m which he failed to declare and he started the party a few days later indicating he was paid to start the party. It came out when Crypto guy gave an interview and mentioned it not realising the consequences. The party leader first claimed it was for security. Then it was determined he had bought property with it. https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-nigel-farages-5m-gift-timeline-investigation-and-what-happens-next https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-nigel-fara...
- stanleykm 4mo agoI wonder why all the libertarian freedom loving crypto guys keep backing fascists
- ratelimitsteve 4mo agoif you're in with the fascists they are the most liberty-oriented party. you can do whatever you want, entirely without regard to the law.
- mrguyorama 4mo agoBut this has never been true. Lots of valuable, productive, and loyal Nazis ended up in political prisoner camps. Because that kind of kleptocracy runs on constantly fighting factions and incentives and selfishness. The core belief is selling someone else down the river because you can.
- victorbjorklund 4mo agoBut they all think it will not be them. Just like in Putins Russia.
- ratelimitsteve 3mo agothere's a difference between being a good and loyal fascist and being in with the fascists. you've actually hit on it. those valuable, productive and loyal nazis were allowed to do whatever they wanted without regard to the law when that benefited the party, then that same behavior that was legal and encouraged was what got them kidnapped and murdered by the party as soon as the winds shifted. The core belief of fascism is two-fold: selling someone down the river because you can and believing that either through compliance or raw power you'll never be the one sold down the river.
- cindyllm 3mo ago[dead]
- bhouston 4mo agoThe fact that political spending is considered free speech in the US gives the rich and already powerful massive sway in the political system, it is basically tiled hard towards them. And then combined with how PACs hide their funding behind names like "Everyday Americans Making the World Better" when really it just wants to lessen online gambling laws for a billion dollar company, is just brutal. US politics is a dystopian future realized.
- buellerbueller 4mo agoEnabled yet again, today, by the SCOTUS.
- saalweachter 4mo agoWhat I find mildly interesting is how the older money (eg, the Koch brothers) spent decades creating the current environment (between deregulation on business, cutting taxes on the wealthy, and political ventures like the Federalist Society and Heritage, Inc), but it's come together to create a newer group of rich jerks who are really exploiting it to the hilt.
- buellerbueller 4mo agoI recall that this outcome (today's rich jerks exploiting it to the hilt) was what was predicted all along.
- arealaccount 4mo agoEven crazier that they sway elections in districts they've never even visited nor intend to ever visit
- twoodfin 4mo agoPolitical spending is perhaps the most important kind of free speech. It cost money to print copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Federalist Papers. The New York Times gets into politics quite a bit and is published by a multi-billion dollar corporation. Where in the Constitution is that activity protected from the government but the First Amendment?
- khurs 4mo agoAndreessen Horowitz - $51.65m... are they the Goldman Sachs (Vampire Squid) of the Tech world? The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-195229/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-grea...
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- Analemma_ 4mo agoHonestly, that comparison is insulting to Goldman Sachs. Goldman at least sometimes provides funding for things beneficial to humanity: infrastructure projects, small business loans, and the like. A16Z has transitioned fully to various incarnations of casino apps and getting rich by getting people addicted to gambling, they are a purely negative force in the world with no upside whatsoever.
- snypher 4mo agoShow me something Goldman has done that wasn't for the return %.
- Analemma_ 4mo agoThat's not what I argued and you are misrepresenting my point. My argument is that, at least sometimes, Goldman invests in positive-sum trades which make the world better off, even if they extract too much for themselves in fees and leverage. By contrast, the various investments A16Z makes are negative-sum and only manage to make the world worse.
- actionfromafar 4mo agoPutting a face on "externalizing costs".
- BiraIgnacio 4mo agoIs this a little or a lot? any idea how that compares to other industries and donors?
- thehoff 4mo agoIt almost doesn't matter? If it was less than other industries doesn't make it okay. I like any/all callouts of industries and their political "donations". Its all so ridiculous.
- pooploop64 4mo agoI guess the threat of this is what's unclear. The cryptobros are going to take over the world and then do what exactly?
- thehoff 4mo agoYeah I guess poor wording on my part. It does matter. My point was even if its a lot less than other industries that doesn't negate what's happening here.
- ratelimitsteve 4mo agosomeone below is saying it's over a third of all spending so far. which feels like a lot to me.
- knorker 4mo agoWhen it's from an industry consisting 100% of organized crime and negative-sum grifting, it's a lot. I'd read a donation with "from the oil industry" and "from The Organization Of Stealing All Copper from Public Spaces" as different types of "bad", even if I'd prefer that the oil industry also not buy politicians. For the avoidance of doubt, blockchain people are the copper thieves.
- gwbas1c 4mo agoParagraph #2 directly answers your question: > More than one-third of all corporate money contributed to this year's November elections, and primary elections leading up to them, has come from the crypto industry, making it the top corporate political spender, the group said.
- paulpauper 4mo agoAs far as the US is concerned, given how badly bitcoin has done since Trump was inaugurated, the worst performing asset class by far, I would say the ROI has been pretty bad. Industries and sectors that donated nothing still got bailouts and other initiatives, such as AI, quantum, metals, and semiconductors. Noting for crypto donors. No bailouts, or even mentions on twitter. Politicians can take money but they don't have to honor their end of the deal to give anything in return.
- hgoel 4mo agoBut is that also accounting for any regulatory pressure/investigations that might have otherwise hit those donors? Perhaps just the promise of not being prosecuted for their crimes if/when their scam collapses is sufficient ROI for them.
- ratelimitsteve 4mo agothat and directing US dollars into crypto markets via the government. you can sell people on the idea with the same arguments that are currently moderately successful in convincing people to do things like buy gold as a retirement plan, and anyone who is holding crypto before the government "invests" in it will see incredible returns as demand spikes for an asset whose supply is intentionally capped. The crypto whales are suddenly in the presence of a crypto leviathan in the form of government spending, they not only make a ton of money but they can sell out without crashing the market (solving a huge problem, esp for shitcoin whales but realistically for major stakeholders in all crypto) and everyone who's actually involved in the decision-making process leaves with fistfuls of money from people who didn't meaningfully have a say in which bag they'd be purchasing or at what price.
- doctorpangloss 4mo agoYeah but Justin Sun is a stable genius, losing tons of money is just part of his 4D chess.
- Finnucane 4mo agoSome of them have gotten out of jail.
- ChrisArchitect 4mo agoRelated: The AI industry is pouring millions into US elections https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48687483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48687483
- ChrisArchitect 4mo agoRelated: Tech Influence Watch site: https://influence.citationneeded.news/ https://influence.citationneeded.news/ (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48632474 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48632474) Blog post: https://www.citationneeded.news/tech-influence-watch/ https://www.citationneeded.news/tech-influence-watch/
- shemnon42 4mo agoRookie numbers.
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- baggachipz 4mo ago"Very legal and very cool"
- Cider9986 4mo agoIt can't be worse than the banks. It's a shame the crypto industry is so scummy it makes people avoid real improvements on the monetary system made by Monero.
- nyeah 4mo agoWe know that it is much, much worse than the banks.
- Cider9986 4mo agoFrom a privacy and freedom perspective, crypto in general is a big improvement on banks. Monero is the perfected implementation of cryptocurrency. Banks hold your funds, lock you out of accounts, file reports on you, share every transaction with the government, scam you in interest, ask you what your using your money for, require invasive services to use their apps, require invasive biometrics, hoard your identity data and sell it, target ads to you, close your account if you're deemed to be high risk, implement atrocious security.
- nyeah 4mo agoI'll pick one incorrect claim out of many: Public ledger systems have no privacy at all, by design. You can hope nobody knows which wallet is yours, but that's not serious privacy. Today that's not even really hide-it-from-your-kid-brother privacy.
- Cider9986 4mo agoI expressly mentioned Monero, which doesn't have a transparent ledger. It's fungible, like cash. Even Bitcoin is pseudonymous, so definitely has cons in terms of privacy compared to banks, but also benefits. Monero is completely private. What are the other errors in my critique of banks? Will you explain how Monero is worse than banks?
- nyeah 4mo ago
- WinstonSmith84 4mo agoLooks a little bit sensational and .. very much misleading 1- The largest donor, a16z is certainly invested in Crypto, but that's a venture capital firm, not crypto firm. 2- Fairshake PAC is basically a Crypto PAC, so it's obvious that Crypto firms are funding that PAC, right. I quote Wikipedia: > Fairshake is a Super PAC funded by the cryptocurrency industry that supported pro-cryptocurrency candidates in the 2024 United States elections.[2][3][4][5] Major contributors include Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz.[6] Fairshake spent nearly twice as much on Republican candidates than on Democratic candidates.[7] That PAC doesn't look like they are ideologically oriented, they just care about whether a candidate is pro crypto or not, whether it's dems or reps. 3- Leading the Future is not even a Crypto PAC at all, it's an AI PAC
- muglug 4mo ago> That PAC doesn't look like they are ideologically oriented, they just care about whether a candidate is pro crypto or not Surely the more disturbing thing is that they're spending money at all. In the olden days a CEO would ring up a politician and say something like "if you vote for this bill, my 50,000 employees in your state will not be happy" — a sizable voting bloc gave those execs power. Now the crypto companies say "if you vote for this bill, my 1,000 employees in your state will not be happy..." — less compelling, voting-bloc wise — "...and also I will donate millions to your opponent in the primary"
- khriss 4mo agoAnd as if to sprinkle salt on the wounds, the Supreme court today allowed unlimited spending by political parties 'in coordination with allied interests(read the money class)' https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48734220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48734220 Moneyed interests have always jockeyed for power, but earlier they were held somewhat in check by Congress which had to listen somewhat to voters. With Citizens united in 2010 and corporate media driving polarization to new heights, big money has been able to drown out ordinary voters at at unprecedented scale. No wonder, the 1% have never had it so good, when they can literally buy the govt they want. Looks like we're headed back to the gilded age and robber barons.
- actionfromafar 4mo agoThe 1% are just along for the ride, having a good time. The 0.001% are calling the shots now.
- jimt1234 4mo agoDistract the masses with the 'birthright citizenship' ruling, while simultaneously giving the 1% what they paid for: more influence over elections/legislation. 4D chess.
- estearum 4mo agoBirthright citizenship is not a distraction
- soupfordummies 4mo agoWell it’s by definition a distraction as it sucks all the air out of the newsroom. Doesn’t mean it’s not important just that it’s such a big story that any other rulings are gonna fly under the radar.
- estearum 4mo agoYes, I suppose by that same definition 9/11 or World War 2 were the distractions of their time. Makes sense. (Hint: that's not a useful nor typical definition of distraction)
- nullorempty 4mo agoI spent nothing on US election this year and nothing in all previous years. Partly, because I am not from US, but largely because I have no interests to lobby! Are elections that run on donations can be considered truly democratic?
- kiproping 4mo agoSo are you telling me that a certain country that banned Crypto entirely might have been right?
- hadlock 4mo agoThere was a flight to quality (their first real test, in my opinion) back in February 2026 and... nobody bought Crypto. Crypto never recovered after that. It's a good time to be a lobbyist, but I don't think you can effectively legislate against the value of gold for any amount of money.
- petilon 4mo agoThis just came out: Trump reports more than $1.4 billion in income from crypto ventures [1]. He received more than $500 million from World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture he and his sons co-founded. Trump reported another $635 million from the sale of his $TRUMP meme coins. $TRUMP meme coin shot up to $75 two days after launch. It has lost most of its value [2]. Guess who got rich off the people who invested in $TRUMP coin? A UAE-linked investment firm acquired a 49% stake in Trump's World Liberty Financial for $500 million just before Trump's January 2025 inauguration, directing significant upfront payments to Trump family entities. [1] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-reports-more-than-14-billion-income-crypto-ventures-2026-06-30/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-reports-more-than-14-... [2] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/official-trump/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/official-trump/
- quantum_state 4mo agoTo make America great again, we need to rid private money from politics and election. A public pool should be established with well defined rules and transparency to fund election and campaign. It is a basic investment in healthy democracy.
- fittingopposite 4mo agoRelated: Trump raked in more than $1bn from crypto businesses in 2025, filing shows https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/30/trump-1bn-crypto-businesses-2025 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/30/trump-1bn-cr...
- ProllyInfamous 4mo agoSome day soon, perhaps we can vote cryptographically (whether or not on a blockchain – not necessary, just need private-key-signing abilities for each voter)... instead of being required in-person, as some archaic states do. Have some sort of in-person option (to vote without knowing how to hash keys... on-site, they'll do this for you after verifying ID). In the interim, more states need vote-by-mail. ---- Really happy with Monday's SCOTUS ruling that strengthens states' mail-in ballot programs, which ruled that votes are valid as long as they are postmarked on (or before) Election Day. <Watson v. RNC> It's a step in the right direction.