Ripple’s $25M Donation Powers Fairshake PAC’s Crypto Advocacy by 2024
Fairshack, a pro-crypto US super political action committee (PAC), has seen its coffers swell with a $25-million donation from Ripple. Fairshack is the richest nonpartisan super PAC in the 2024 election cycle, raising between $102 million and $110 million overall, and is the third-richest based on reports.
Ripple also contributed $25 million to Fairshake in 2023. CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a statement:
“Our contribution to Fairshake is just one of many ways Ripple is actively investing in educating voters about the role Ripple will play in the future of crypto and the anti-crypto stance some policymakers in Washington hold.”
But the crypto slant is clear, Fershack says, “supporting candidates who are committed to making the United States home to the innovators who will build the next generation of the Internet.” The super PAC contributor list reads like a who's who of the crypto world.
A wide range of Fairshack contributors
According to Open Confidential, whose data has not been updated to reflect Ripple's new donation at the time of writing, contributors who have donated less than $1 million include former Bitfinex executive Phil Potter (twice totaling less than $2 million), Fred Ersham and Paradigm's Matt Huang, Xapo Bank's Wens. Casares, executives at Electric Capital, the 16z-backed LightSpark Group and billionaire Cathy Wood's ARK Invest.
Related: SBF was a ‘significant donor' in US midterm elections.
Politicians Fairshack is said to have supported include Patrick McHenry, Dusty Johnson, Willie Nickell and others. He worked on California progressive Katie Porter.
Nonpartisan but not completely neutral.
According to Open Confidential, whose data does not yet include Ripple's new donation, Fairshack has spent heavily to oppose Democratic candidates, but no Republicans. He spent $629,646 supporting Democrats and $551,675 supporting Republicans. As a super PAC, it is not allowed to make direct contributions to candidates in order to coordinate its activities with them.
Coinbase has also set up a PAC – Stand with Crypto, which will donate to Fairshake independently of the cryptocurrency exchange. Stand with crypto has a more grassroots base. At least $87.2 million in the war chest is collected from its nearly 860,000 members. The largest donation was $1 million from MoonPay, and the next largest was $20,000.
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