Crypto election gusher has bipartisan payoff
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
By Gabriel Rubin
WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) -The cash bazooka aimed by the cryptocurrency industry at U.S. elections will probably be effective — just as one could split a walnut with a diamond cutter. Its critics are on their back foot, with both presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris and Donald Trump making significant promises to the industry. The donations’ single goal - to create a bulletproof political consensus around crypto that grants it regulatory certainty and legitimacy – will likely be successful.
A group representing the cryptocurrency industry, “Fairshake,” spent more on the 2024 election through August than the transportation sector or agribusiness spent in all of 2020. At around $200 million through Sept. 22, their total contributions are keeping pace with labor unions and the sector that includes oil, gas, mining and renewable energy companies.
The result is a Congress and future administration that is likely to be overstuffed with crypto allies. Andreessen Horowitz threw their weight behind Donald Trump, following their pledge to back candidates who oppose “misguided” tech regulations. Co-founder Ben Horowitz also donated to Kamala Harris. His Fairshake counterpart, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, outlaid more than $10 million to Harris’s campaign.
Voices within the industry didn't agree with all its spending choices. Fairshake announced plans to spend $12 million against Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown in a close race in Ohio. Billionaire tech investor Ron Conway lambasted his fellow Fairshake donors for opposing Brown, and pulled his own support for the group.
At this point, the leaders of both parties have made explicit appeals to the crypto industry and voters who care about the issue. Harris has made crypto central to her appeal to black men, who disproportionately own crypto assets, while Trump has visited industry gatherings.
Both Silicon Valley and Wall Street expect Harris to appoint regulators less antagonistic to the industry than the likes of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler. Trump, though personally skeptical of crypto's utility, is close with crypto's top advocates in Congress and has even nodded to more ambitious aims, like a federal bitcoin reserve. Either way, the legitimacy would be well worth the expensive courtship: bitcoin rose around 150% in 2023 on optimism that exchange-traded funds based on it would be approved. The U.S. government's stamp of approval is a valuable asset.
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CONTEXT NEWS
The cryptocurrency industry spent around $200 million on campaign donations through the summer, according to consumer watchdog Public Citizen, and has spent around $140 million on campaign advertisements for House and Senate races, the Washington Post reported Oct. 18.
Crypto-focused firms Ripple, Coinbase, and Andreessen Horowitz have increased their giving this campaign cycle and now rank in the top 10 finance industry firms by political giving.
Editing by Lauren Silva Laughlin and Pranav Kiran
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