In the USA, it seems that the 2024 presidential elections are having new influences, with crypto companies and startups contributing 48% to corporate political donations.
US Elections 2024: crypto companies and startups contribute 48% of corporate political donations
In the USA, in this year of presidential elections, the phenomenon of political donations is experiencing an unprecedented change. Crypto companies and startups are spending $119 million, which represents 48% of all corporate political donations.
NEW: Crypto corporations are dominating political spending, pouring over $119,000,000 into influencing federal elections in 2024 alone.
That’s almost HALF of all corporate money spent this election cycle. https://t.co/79K2UOiEGL
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) August 21, 2024
“NEWS: Cryptocurrency companies are dominating political spending, pouring over $119,000,000 to influence federal elections just in 2024. This is almost half of all the money spent by companies in this election cycle.”
In practice, it seems that almost half of the donations made by companies in politics are from the cryptocurrency sector.
In fact, it has been calculated that crypto companies have already spent 119 million dollars in donations to influence federal elections.
From what has emerged from the report of the consumer advocacy organization, Public Citizen, crypto contributions are mostly directed to super political action committees (PAC) like Fairshake.
In this regard, about 108 million dollars in funding to Fairshake come “directly from companies that can profit from the efforts of the PAC,” including Coinbase, Ripple, the co-founders of Gemini, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and the CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong.
US Elections and the Record Donations from Crypto Companies and Startups in Politics
The researcher from Public Citizen, Rick Claypool, also highlighted the framework of the situation regarding donations from crypto companies for these elections in the USA 2024.
New @Public_Citizen report shows crypto corporations are exploiting the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling to an unprecedented degree, dwarfing spending by Big Oil and other corporate sectors in the 2024 elections. pic.twitter.com/x7ItuKaH0t
— Rick Claypool (@RickClaypool) August 21, 2024
New @Public_Citizen shows that cryptocurrency companies are exploiting the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling to an unprecedented level, surpassing the spending of Big Oil and other corporate sectors in the 2024 elections.
Following, in the report, Public Citizen writes:
“The equal partisan division in both chambers of Congress means that the great influence of the cryptocurrency sector in competitive races has the potential to shift control of Congress in one direction or the other. […] No sector has ever so convincingly embraced fundraising directly from companies and the open use of this political war chest as an impending threat (or reward) to discipline legislators towards adopting the policies preferred by the sector.”
The report suggests that the races for the United States Senate in Montana and Ohio could be some of the next testing grounds for the super PAC crypto.
Donald Trump and the crypto donations
Last July it emerged that the Republican candidate for the US Presidency, Donald Trump, raised donations of more than 4 million dollars in Bitcoin and other crypto, for his election campaign.
Among its donors, we remember the founding brothers of the crypto-exchange Gemini, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. And indeed, at the end of June, the two Winklevoss publicly announced that they had donated 2 million dollars in BTC to Trump.
Immediately after, even Jesse Powell, co-founder of the crypto-exchange Kraken, announced that he also donated 1 million dollars in crypto to Trump’s electoral campaign.
The Republican candidate thus seems to be the favorite of the crypto sector. In July, Trump participated by giving his speech at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville, in front of the entire crypto-community.
Among the various pro-bitcoin statements, Trump also claimed that BTC could surpass gold in terms of market cap, given its growth rate. Trump highlighted how in just 15 years, Bitcoin has gone from a simple idea to being the ninth most valuable asset in the world.