The Cryptocurrency Industry Spent $135 Million in the 2024 Election Cycle and Won

The cryptocurrency industry spent about $135 million in the 2024 election cycle to back more than 50 candidates, including Democrats and Republicans

The cryptocurrency industry went all out in the 2024 election, spending about $135 million to back more than 50 candidates — and they all won.

Now, crypto is celebrating and planning its next steps in a bid to build on the momentum and gain more influence in Washington.

Candidates and ads backed by crypto’s political action committees were declared winners in 48 out of 48 races as of midday Friday, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Government. In eight races where votes are still being counted, the PACs’ preferred candidate is ahead in all but three.

Crypto made its biggest bet in Ohio, where it spent more than $40 million to lift Republican Bernie Moreno in his bid to unseat longtime Democratic senator and vocal crypto-skeptic Sherrod Brown. Moreno, who trailed in the polls as recently as late October, was declared the victor with 50.2% of the vote as of midday Thursday.

“DC received a clear message that being anti-crypto is a good way to end your career,” Coinbase Global Inc. CEO Brian Armstrong crowed in an X post celebrating the election results.

This may come as a surprise to voters — candidates and ads backed by crypto’s political action committees barely mentioned the industry or its pet issue, regulation. Yet, Fairshake, its primary vehicle for the campaign, has become the largest single-issue super PAC in history.

Fairshake and two affiliated super PACs, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress, are funded by Coinbase, Ripple Labs and Andreessen Horowitz, among other industry heavyweights.

Its influence campaign dwarfed traditional corporate donors like Koch Industries and Chevron Corp. It now ranks second only to the fossil fuel industry in total money deployed since the landmark 2010 Supreme Court decision that lifted limits on companies’ political spending, according to consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen.

Now, the industry is touting the massive election spending — and the outcome — as evidence that it’s become a political force to be reckoned with, gathering momentum for the next legislative session and for the 2026 midterms.

Hours after the Presidential election was called, a crypto-backed lobbying group, the Cedar Innovation Foundation, issued a statement celebrating “the most pro-blockchain and pro-crypto Congress in history,” and urging President-elect Donald Trump to dismiss Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler immediately.

The industry plans to keep pushing for favorable regulations. Coinbase and Ripple have been building their lobbying efforts, employing more registered lobbyists in 2024 than ever before, according to an OpenSecrets analysis of Senate Office of Public Records data. Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm with large crypto investments, plans to open an office in Washington.

Meanwhile, Fairshake is padding its coffers for the midterms. Last week, Coinbase committed $25 million, and Andreessen Horowitz pledged an additional $23 million, adding to $30 million leftover from this cycle.

“Industry will double down on large support of Fairshake,” Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen said in an email hours after the election, which he characterized as an “enormous day for crypto.”

It’s money the industry can currently easily afford. Digital asset prices have soared, driven in part by excitement about a pro-crypto president-elect and the likelihood of light-touch regulation.

Bitcoin hit a fresh record in the hours after the election, and a rally in Coinbase shares added more than $2 billion to Armstrong’s personal wealth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

As Armstrong suggested on X, Fairshake and its affiliates are willing to spend big, and spend early, to support allies and defeat opponents. In one high-profile example, it put $10 million into attack ads against Katie Porter, an early Democratic challenger for California’s empty Senate seat. She lost in the primary, and the industry would point to her defeat as evidence of its influence.

It was also a preview of its strategy to avoid mentioning crypto. Polls consistently show that most Americans don’t care about the industry at all. In Ohio, one Fairshake ad argued that Moreno would support Trump’s economic agenda, drive gas and grocery bills down, and end illegal immigration. Another said he’d protect Social Security and energy independence. They touted Moreno’s business background, but not that he’d worked for a blockchain technology company.

“They’re spending all this money,” said Rick Claypool, a research director at Public Citizen. “Their true message, trying to buy policies, is directed at the candidates themselves.”

Protect Progress spent $10 million in support of Elissa Slotkin, who won Michigan’s Senate seat, and $10 million on Ruben Gallego, who is ahead in his campaign for Arizona’s Senate seat. As members of the House, both candidates voted for the industry’s pet bills earlier this year.

Fairshake spent big in US House races as well. The

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