Crypto companies have poured $176 million into more than 100 congressional races this cycle, buying access and goodwill at a scale that should make every working American ask what's coming back the other way. While families stretch paychecks to cover groceries, Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz are writing nine-figure checks to make sure Washington writes the rules they want.
The spending is no accident. It's a calculated response to the Biden SEC, which hit the industry with more than $6 billion in penalties across 98 enforcement actions after the FTX collapse. Executives decided they needed political muscle, not just lawyers. Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad helped launch Fairshake and Stand With Crypto in 2023, and the number of lawmakers rated "A" by Stand With Crypto has since jumped from 96 to 332. That's not grassroots — that's a lobbying operation buying friends in both parties.
Fairshake, the industry's largest super PAC, accounts for roughly $150.8 million of the midterm spending through October 20, according to Reuters. The group says 53 of the 58 candidates it backed in primaries or special elections won. Fairshake spokesperson Geoff Vetter called it backing "pro-crypto candidates who support American innovation in both parties." But that bipartisan pitch collapsed the moment Democrats blocked the industry's top legislative priority.
The Clarity Act would shift crypto oversight to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — a friendlier regulator than the SEC. Senate Democrats stalled the bill over an ethics provision that would force the Trump family to divest its crypto holdings. Reuters reported the Trump family made roughly $2.3 billion from crypto ventures between mid-2024 and April 2026. Once Democrats killed the bill, Fairshake pivoted to backing only Republicans in Senate races. So much for bipartisan coalition-building.
The industry already notched one win: the GENIUS Act, which created federal rules for stablecoins and passed with broad bipartisan support. Now they want the Clarity Act, and they're spending accordingly. Fairshake has dumped more than $68 million into Ohio alone against Sherrod Brown, the former Senate Banking Committee chair, in his rematch against Republican Jon Husted. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss each kicked in about $13 million this cycle, mostly to MAGA Inc.
Here's the part that ought to trouble anyone who believes in transparent government: Fairshake's ads run through affiliates with names like "Defend American Jobs" and "Protect Progress," and they focus on taxes and immigration — not crypto. Voters have almost no way of knowing who's paying for the messaging. Gizmodo framed this as corporate capture; Bitcoin Magazine framed it as an industry maturing and fighting back after Biden-era enforcement. Both are partly right. But neither changes the bottom line: $176 million is buying policy, and the people spending it don't want you to know their names when you see the ads.
The open question is what happens when those bills come due — and whether the politicians who cashed the checks will answer to the voters who elected them or the firms that bought the airtime.
