The super PAC with the highest amount of money raised is likely one you’ve never heard of: “Fairshake PAC.”
According to their website, the group “supports candidates committed to securing the United States as the home to innovators building the next generation of the internet.” In simpler terms, they are an “independent” cryptocurrency and blockchain industry group. According to OpenSecrets, they’ve raised $202,939,294 to influence upcoming elections.
The PAC has spent only a handful of millions so far, almost entirely attacking progressive Democratic candidates. That includes an ad attack against Representative Katie Porter’s California Democratic primary back in February. The group has also spent $2 million to push out progressive New York Representative Jamaal Bowman and $1 million against fellow Squad member Cori Bush’s upcoming primary in Missouri.
Given the PAC’s spending (or lack thereof, relative to how much money it has), it’s no wonder that both major presidential candidates have begun to vie for the cryptocurrency industry’s favor. On July 27, Donald Trump spoke at the national Bitcoin conference.
“You’re going to be very happy with me,” he said as he addressed the conference in Nashville, Tennessee. In his speech, the Republican presidential nominee promised to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet.”
At the same time, Kamala Harris reached out to the blockchain world, reportedly having aides meet with industry officials to “reset” relations and strengthen the Democratic Party’s ties with cryptocurrency business interests. Harris is not likely to sway big donors and PACs such as Fairshake, however.
Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and the venture capitalist firm Winklevoss Capital, already seems to have come out against her.
“Beware of the Big Bluff,” he wrote on X, speaking about Harris’s attempts to win over the industry.
The millions of dollars raised by Fairshake PAC come from Winklevoss and his twin brother Tyler, Coinbase, Ripple, and “techno-optimist” Marc Andreessen. This venture capitalist world has increasingly rallied around Trump following his pick of J.D. Vance for vice president, given Vance’s background in Silicon Valley and relationships with billionaires such as Peter Thiel.
As cryptocurrency researcher Molly White pointed out, Coinbase appears to have skirted campaign finance laws through its donations to Fairshake. If this is the case, this would be the “largest known illegal campaign contribution by a federal contractor,” according to White.
During the 2022 midterms, the crypto industry, led by Sam Bankman-Fried, had an outsize influence through massive campaign spending. At the time, Bankman-Fried spent millions collaborating with AIPAC and Trump to support billionaires and crush the electoral left in Democratic primaries.
As Bankman-Fried sits in prison, Fairshake PAC seems to be willing to take up the mantle in 2024.
