Crypto Groups Allocate Nearly $120 Million to Influence 2024 Elections

This year, the crypto industry has spent over $119 million to influence U.S. elections and create more favorable political conditions for pro-crypto policies, according to a recent study from Public Citizen.

America’s largest registered crypto exchange, Coinbase, contributed more than $50 million to influence key races and fund pro-crypto political action committees (PACs) this election cycle.

Rick Claypool, a research director at Public Citizen, stated, “The biggest of the Big Crypto corporate money donors are Coinbase and Ripple, which together have dumped about $99 million into buying influence over the 2024 elections.”

San Francisco-based crypto firm Ripple has contributed $49 million to crypto PACs, aiming to influence pro-crypto regulation. “As an industry, particularly for U.S.-based companies, we’re frustrated with how far the U.S. is lagging in setting clear rules,” Ripple President Monica Long recently told Reuters. “This approach of setting rules through enforcement is unproductive and isn’t getting us anywhere.”

This year alone, super PACs have raised over $102 million in support of the crypto industry.

“Money drives influence,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told Axios. “For better or worse, that’s the reality of our system.”