Coinbase chips in another $25M to crypto super PAC Fairshake
Crypto exchange Coinbase says it has donated $25 million to crypto-focused super political action committee (PAC) Fairshake as it ramps up its lobbying efforts ahead of November's US election.
In a June 3 blog post, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the latest donation brings the total amount raised by the PAC and its affiliates this election cycle to $160 million. The amount matches donations from Ripple and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz last week.
“Crypto voters will not be taken seriously until we send a clear message to political candidates that being anti-crypto is bad politics,” Armstrong wrote. “We need to support pro-crypto candidates on both sides of the aisle and vote anti-crypto candidates out of office.”
While Armstrong is willing to address Coinbase critics, he said “we no longer need to support them” and “will work to get anti-crypto candidates out of office.”
With $160 million in funding, FairShack is one of the nation's cash-flowing super PACs, according to an OpenSecrets analysis. It cannot donate money directly to political candidates, but it can spend unlimited amounts to support them in other ways.
Open Secret data shows that Fairshack's biggest expenditure this cycle was $10 million on lobbying Democrats, a quarter of the $40 million he spent this cycle.
Earlier this year, he bankrolled attack ads against Rep. Katie Porter of California, who lost her Senate primary race in March.
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Coinbase's donation comes ahead of the November 5 US election, where the president's 435 House seats and 34 of the 100 Senate seats are being contested.
The House has a Republican majority and Democrats control the Senate, but a May Citizen report said the crypto sector's “overwhelming influence” in the key race has the potential to sway Congress in one direction or another.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump remains the favorite despite several recent criminal convictions. He is 1 percentage point ahead of President Joe Biden, according to a June 3 FiveThirtyEight poll.
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