With the 2024 US elections rapidly approaching, crypto executives and investors have injected a total of $78 million into three leading independent expenditure-only political action committees (super PACs) with the aim of supporting crypto-friendly candidates.
Protect Progress, Defend American Jobs, and Fairshake are the three pro-crypto super PACs, with the latter having already spent over $1.2 million on television ads backing House candidates, according to a Politico report published on December 18.
Notable supporters of this campaign include venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, crypto exchange Coinbase, Gemini’s co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and other prominent players in the crypto realm, among them Ripple, Circle, Kraken, and Paradigm.
Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse expressed his optimism about this contribution to the struggle against regulatory overreach and lack of leadership that is hindering the US’s advancement in global crypto and technology. He noted: “We need to progress leaders who will promote innovation and pave the way for conscientious regulation. 2024 is the time to go back to the fundamentals by stimulating initiatives to promote transparency, innovation, and a compliance-first approach. Team Ripple and I won’t let this opportunity slip away.”
Kara Calvert, Coinbase’s head of US policy, told Politico in an interview that this effort signifies “a very serious commitment from the crypto industry to engage in the 2024 elections,” adding: “The need to make sure that a crypto super PAC is well-funded, has good management, and is getting involved in the right place at the right time has never been more important.”
It is worth mentioning that recently US Senator Elizabeth Warren launched an expanded coalition of Senate support for the bipartisan Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, aimed at tightening crypto regulations, first introduced in December 2022.
In addition, John E. Deaton, a legal expert in the crypto space, revealed that 20% of the US Senate have already shown their support for Warren’s anti-crypto bill, including Republican Lindsay Graham, Independent Angus King, and Independent-turned-Democrat Joe Manchin, as reported by Finbold on December 18.
