Crypto titans launch 2024 election play with $78M super PAC spend

A trio of super PACs backed by cryptocurrency executives and investors said Monday that they've raised $78 million as part of a major new push to influence the 2024 elections.

The campaign, which has support from venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, marks of a revival of the digital asset industry's political operations, following the downfall of crypto megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried.

The goal of the effort is to back candidates who support crypto-friendly policy at a moment when the industry is facing intense scrutiny from federal regulators. One of the group's affiliated super PACs, Fairshake, has already spent more than $1.2 million on television ads backing House candidates. The other two super PACs, Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs, have not yet reported any independent expenditures.

“This is demonstrating a very serious commitment from the crypto industry to engage in the 2024 elections," Kara Calvert, the head of U.S. policy at Coinbase, said in an interview.

The political push comes at a key moment for the crypto industry, which is lobbying for House GOP bills that would help legitimize digital assets and create a new structure for regulating them. The legislation faces hurdles in the Senate and with the Biden administration amid consumer protection and financial crime concerns. Crypto firms are hoping a 2024 shakeup could help swing Washington policy in their direction.

Chris Dixon, who leads Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto fund, wrote in a blog post Monday that his conversations with lawmakers have made it “more apparent that the only way to counteract the lobbies of the big banks and big tech is to show that crypto and blockchain can be a force, too.”

“While we won’t control how Fairshake spends our donation, we are encouraged by their vision,” he said. Andreessen Horowitz announced last week that it will begin spending money to back political candidates.

The groups' full donor profile won’t be public until campaign finance disclosures are released early next year. But an initial list of contributors the group released Monday includes major crypto players, including Circle, Kraken, Paradigm and Ripple, as well as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and venture capitalists Ron Conway and Fred Wilson.

Separately, Coinbase has also launched a grassroots advocacy campaign, and other pro-crypto super PACs are expected to mobilize in the coming year.

“The need to ensure that a crypto super PAC is well-funded, has good management, is getting engaged in the right place at the right time has never been more important,” Calvert said. “Fairshake is going to be an incredibly important part of the political muscle here.”