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Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss (L-R), founders of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Trust, stand on stage at the Bitcoin 2021 Convention at the Manna Convention Center in Wynwood, Miami, Florida on June 4, 2021.
Joe Raedl | Getty Images
Cameron and Tyler The Winklevoss twins are the largest individual cryptocurrency donors this election cycle. Donations totaled $10.1 million, or just over $5 million per person, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by crypto market and blockchain analyst James Delmore and independently verified by CNBC.
With 50 days left until the November general election, political donations from or supporting the crypto industry have reached roughly $190 million, with some of the sector’s biggest names opening up their digital wallets to help elect candidates sympathetic to their interests.
The Winklevoss twins donated a combined total of about $1.7 million. Bitcoin To the Trump 47 Committee The campaign has been raising money for former Republican President Donald Trump, donating a total of more than $700,000 to the pro-Trump “Make America Great Again” PAC, $250,000 each to the pro-Trump “America Great Again” PAC, and $4.9 million to the nonpartisan pro-cryptocurrency “Fairshake” PAC.
Top executives from blockchain giant Ripple Labs have donated more than $3 million in total to candidate committees and super PACs so far this election cycle, including to co-founder Chris Larsen Of that amount, they donated about $2.4 million. Primarily to support Democratic candidates. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse The company has donated more than $384,000 to several political action committees and candidates, including Representative Ro Khan of California and John Deaton, the Republican running against Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Stuart Alderotidonated $300,000 to the Trump 47 Committee.
At a Trump fundraiser in June, Aldeloti explained how Ripple had spent more than $100 million in legal fees defending against the SEC’s civil lawsuit, which was held at venture capitalist David Sachs’ San Francisco mansion.
The Winklevoss twins and Coinbase did not respond to requests for comment, but Ripple referred CNBC to previous comments from its executives, including a statement from June. post “A candidate can win votes by being pro-crypto, but be sure to lose votes by being anti-crypto,” Garlinghouse wrote of X.
The month after the San Francisco fundraiser, Trump promised to fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler if elected, but the president of the United States does not have the power to remove independent commissioners without cause. The next president could remove Gensler from his position as chairman, but he would remain on the commission until the end of his term.
Under Gensler’s leadership, the SEC has taken on industry giants such as: Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges Kraken and Coinbase.
Executives at both companies are spending heavily this fiscal year. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Trump has donated more than $1.3 million to political action committees (PACs) such as FairShake and J.D. Vance for Senate Inc., as well as directly to Democratic and Republican candidates running for both House and Senate seats. Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal has attended at least two of Trump’s fundraisers, including one in Nashville on the sidelines of the biggest bitcoin event of the year.
Co-founder and Chairman of Kraken Jesse Powell He donated just over $1 million to the Trump campaign.
Individual crypto contributors include former Bitfinex head of strategy Phil Potter (Over $1.6 million) MultiCoin Capital Kyle Samani ($878,600), co-founder of Paradigm Fred Artham ($735,400), Partner at Union Square Ventures Fred Wilson ($1.4 million), CEO and co-founder of Paxos Charles Cascarilla ($198,500), BitGo CEO Mike Belshe ($119,825), Co-founder of Solana Anatoly Yakavenko ($67,100), founder of Gibraltar-based Xapo Bank Wences Casares ($374,899).
According to Delmore’s ReportAs of now, there have been no confirmed crypto donations to Future Forward PAC, which is raising money for Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris. Future Forward began accepting crypto donations this month through a partnership with Coinbase Commerce. The donations page on its website does not yet appear to offer a cryptocurrency option.
CNBC reached out to two representatives for Future Forward, who are listed in the PAC’s FEC filing, asking about the tally of crypto donations to date and when the organization plans to add a crypto payment option to its website. They did not immediately respond.
Harris has been on a fundraising ramp-up since Biden dropped out of the race, raising $47 million in the first 24 hours after her first, and likely only, debate with Trump on Tuesday.
A big leap from 2020
Delmore, who is compiling a report on crypto donations in the 2024 election for blockchain analytics platform Breadcrumbs, told CNBC that the industry’s spending is nearly double that of the midterm elections, or more than $190 million in the 2024 election. $98 million for the 2022 electionThat’s roughly 13 times the $15 million spent in 2020, based on combined data from FEC and OpenSecrets filings.
This year’s donor list is richer and more diverse than the past two elections, which were dominated by funding from the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its founder Sam Bankman Freed, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March for stealing $8 billion worth of client funds through FTX.
“Most of the crypto donations in 2022 came from FTX and SBF, and almost all of them went to Democrats or political action committees that support Democrats,” Delmore said.
Delmore said spending between the two parties is more balanced, but “there’s definitely been an increase in spending on Republican candidates and political action committees that support Republicans and oppose Democrats.”
A Public Citizen report released last month found that nearly half of the corporate money flowing into this year’s elections is coming from the cryptocurrency industry, with Coinbase and Ripple leading the way.
There is a lot of overlap between the biggest spenders of cryptocurrency: businesses and individuals.
One of the most funded PACs this year, FairShake traces most of its funding to four sources: Coinbase, Ripple, JumpCrypto and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Broadening its scope to cryptocurrencies as a whole, Delmore’s research found billions of dollars in movement, including more than $20 million in sales from non-fungible tokens (NFTs) announced by President Trump. According to a Bloomberg report:Trump-branded meme tokens, $190 million in political donations from or in support of cryptocurrency, and $1.1 billion in staking on platform Polymarket.
$922 million to date Betting $206 million was bet on who would win the election. Who will win the popular vote?.
Ultimately, getting people to vote will be necessary to elect pro-crypto candidates.
of Support the Crypto AllianceThe campaign, which Coinbase launched last year, is in the midst of a national bus tour of battleground states to encourage voter registration, culminating in an event in Washington on Wednesday that will feature speeches by Coinbase executives and a live performance by music duo The Chainsmokers.
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