CryptoSlate
Crypto companies have spent roughly $139 million shaping the 2024 elections through a network of super PACs led by Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz and Ripple, and have since assembled a war chest exceeding $220 million for the 2026 midterms. Less than four years after the FTX collapse triggered a sweeping SEC enforcement wave, the industry now grades legislators on specific votes, deploys capital to punish defection, and treats Washington as a competitive arena on the same terms as Wall Street and Big Tech.
Why it matters
The shift is structural, not cyclical. After the SEC's enforcement-first posture under Gary Gensler triggered 46 crypto-related actions in 2023 alone and landmark suits against Coinbase, Binance and Ripple, the industry's leadership concluded that regulatory outcomes are fundamentally political — and that winning them requires political tools. Fairshake's bipartisan architecture, routed through Defend American Jobs for Republicans and Protect Progress for Democrats, let the network support candidates in either party while denying any single faction leverage. Roughly 85% of the candidates Fairshake backed in 2024 won their races, including all six in New York, and one in ten members of the incoming Congress had received meaningful crypto-PAC support — most of it in ads that never mentioned crypto at all.
Market impact
The policy returns came fast. The SEC dismissed its civil action against Coinbase in early 2025, dropped its Binance suit shortly after, closed the Robinhood probe with no charges, and let Ripple settle its XRP classification fight for $50 million with $75 million in escrow returned. Paul Atkins' leadership formally disowned the prior enforcement posture, the GENIUS Act delivered the first federal stablecoin framework in July 2025, and the SEC stripped crypto from its 2026 examination priorities entirely. In Texas this cycle, crypto-backed PACs have already spent more than $2.5 million on congressional races — up from $1 million across all of 2024 — and the Tether-backed Fellowship PAC dropped $1.75 million into Ken Paxton's primary win over John Cornyn, a race the Texas Tribune called a watershed. The trajectory now mirrors the early chapters of Wall Street's post-crisis political build, only faster — and critics including Maxine Waters and Brad Sherman have documented at least 12 SEC case dismissals since early 2024, a pattern the industry argues simply reverses an overreaching crackdown.
Frequently asked questions
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How much has the crypto industry spent on US elections?
Crypto companies spent roughly $139 million shaping the 2024 elections through super PACs led by Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz and Ripple, and have since assembled a war chest exceeding $220 million for the 2026 midterms.
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What is Fairshake and how does it operate across parties?
Fairshake is the crypto industry's flagship super PAC, backed by Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, Ripple and others. It operates across party lines through two affiliates — Defend American Jobs for Republicans and Protect Progress for Democrats — routing money to each party's candidates in parallel.
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How many SEC enforcement actions against crypto companies were dropped?
Since early 2024, the SEC has dismissed or closed at least 12 cryptocurrency cases, including civil actions against Coinbase and Binance, the Robinhood probe, and Ripple's XRP classification suit, which settled for $50 million with $75 million in escrow returned.
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What policy wins has crypto achieved through political spending?
The SEC dropped its enforcement-first posture under Paul Atkins, the GENIUS Act delivered the first federal stablecoin framework in July 2025, and crypto was removed entirely from the SEC's 2026 examination priorities. One in ten members of the incoming Congress received meaningful crypto-PAC support.
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How has crypto PAC money been used in Texas elections specifically?
Crypto-backed PACs have spent more than $2.5 million on Texas congressional races this cycle, up from $1 million across all of 2024. The Tether-backed Fellowship PAC also spent $1.75 million backing Ken Paxton's successful primary challenge to John Cornyn.
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