The U.S. cryptocurrency industry has spent $189 million on the 2026 midterm elections as of late October, surpassing its $170 million outlay during the 2024 presidential cycle and establishing crypto firms as the single largest source of corporate election spending in America. According to a Publ...
"An investment in the future — to make sure that for the next 100 years the crypto industry has clear rules and knows what regulators expect." — Collin McLaren, Head of External Affairs, Solana Policy Institute
The U.S. cryptocurrency industry has spent $189 million on the 2026 midterm elections as of late October, surpassing its $170 million outlay during the 2024 presidential cycle and establishing crypto firms as the single largest source of corporate election spending in America. According to a Public Citizen analysis, crypto-linked donations now account for 37% of all disclosed corporate political contributions this cycle — more than Big Tech, fossil fuels, finance, healthcare, and tobacco combined.
The spending is concentrated in a single vehicle: Fairshake, a super PAC funded primarily by Coinbase ($52.5 million), Ripple ($48 million), and Andreessen Horowitz co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz ($23.8 million). Through October 20, Fairshake and its two partisan affiliates — Defend American Jobs (Republican) and Protect Progress (Democratic) — disbursed $150.8 million. The network entered 2026 with $193 million in cash on hand.
The strategic calculus is specific: the CLARITY Act, a market structure bill that would permanently define SEC and CFTC jurisdiction over digital assets, failed a Senate cloture vote 49-50 on September 15. Without statutory law, agency-level rules issued under the Trump administration can be reversed by a successor. The industry is spending to build a congressional bloc that survives regardless of which party controls the White House after January 2029.
Public Citizen released data in October 2026 showing that crypto companies have contributed $189 million to political committees during the 2026 cycle. That figure represents 37% of the $517 million in total disclosed corporate election spending, according to the same analysis.
The breakdown of top contributors:
| Contributor | Amount | Entity Type | |---|---|---| | Coinbase | $57.8M | Exchange | | Ripple Labs | $49.6M | Payments/Infrastructure | | Foris DAX (Crypto.com) | $39.0M | Exchange | | Marc Andreessen & Ben Horowitz | $23.8M | Venture Capital (a16z) |
The $189 million surpasses the $170 million the industry spent during the 2024 presidential election cycle, which at the time was described as unprecedented. In 2024, crypto was the largest corporate political spender; it has retained that position in 2026.
Total identified corporate political spending from the crypto sector since 2024 now exceeds $359 million across the two cycles.
Fairshake operates as a tripartite super PAC network:
As of January 2026, the network held $193 million in liquid funds. Through October 20, the three entities collectively disbursed $150.8 million, with additional crypto-aligned groups spending approximately $25 million independently.
Fairshake's advertising strategy is notable for what it omits. According to Reuters, the PAC's ads run through its affiliates under names like "Defend American Jobs" and "Protect Progress" and typically focus on taxes, immigration, and jobs rather than cryptocurrency policy. A viewer of the ads would not necessarily know that a crypto-funded entity paid for them.
This approach mirrors the PAC's 2024 playbook. FactCheck.org reported in August 2026 that Fairshake-affiliated ads "rarely mention crypto or digital assets" and instead focus on broadly popular economic messages.
The single most expensive race in Fairshake's 2026 portfolio is Ohio's Senate contest between Republican incumbent Jon Husted and Democratic challenger Sherrod Brown. Through Defend American Jobs, the Fairshake network has spent $46.6 million on media in this race — $16.6 million more than its initial $30 million commitment.
The Digital Freedom Fund, a Winklevoss-backed super PAC, added $5.9 million, bringing total crypto-aligned spending against Brown to $52 million. Brown, a longtime banking committee member, has been vocal about stricter crypto regulation.
Other notable spending:
| Race | PAC | Amount | |---|---|---| | Ohio Senate (vs. Brown) | Defend American Jobs | $46.6M | | Nebraska Senate (vs. Osborn) | Defend American Jobs | $6.7M | | Alabama Senate (Moore) | Defend American Jobs | $5.0M | | Arizona Senate (Gallego) | Protect Progress | ~$10M* | | Michigan Senate (Slotkin) | Protect Progress | ~$10M* | | Texas House (Menefee) | Protect Progress | $6.5M |
*Combined Protect Progress Senate spending reported as approximately $20 million across two races.
Fairshake is backing 32 House incumbents for the general election — 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats. CNBC reported on October 5 that all 32 candidates voted for the CLARITY Act when it passed the House 294-134 in July 2025. The selection criterion is explicit: support for the industry's legislative agenda.
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act passed the House with bipartisan support (294-134) in July 2025, advanced through the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 in May 2026, and then died on September 15, 2026, when a cloture vote failed 49-50. The bill needed 60 votes to proceed to debate.
Three Republican senators — Susan Collins (ME), Josh Hawley (MO), and Jerry Moran (KS) — voted against cloture alongside Democratic opposition. Senate Democrats had sought to add provisions preventing federal officials and their families from profiting from the crypto industry, a condition the bill's sponsors rejected.
The failure has material consequences for the industry. The GENIUS Act, a stablecoin law signed by President Trump on July 18, 2025, provided a statutory framework for payment stablecoins. But market structure — the question of which assets are securities and which are commodities, and therefore which regulator oversees them — remains governed by executive-branch interpretation rather than statute.
Without the CLARITY Act, the SEC's October 1, 2026 proposal on crypto custody rules and the CFTC's October 5 advance notice of proposed rulemaking on crypto asset transactions represent the only active federal regulatory frameworks beyond the GENIUS Act. Both are agency actions that a future administration could modify or rescind.
This is the core of the industry's $189 million bet: permanent legislation survives a change in administration. Agency rules do not.
Before the general election, Fairshake's network tested its spending power in 57 primary and special elections across the 2026 cycle. Its preferred candidates won 53 of those races, according to Reuters. In contested primaries where the PAC deployed significant capital, the record was 38-2 as of the most recent available data.
Notable results:
The 95%+ win rate in primaries does not guarantee general election outcomes. But it demonstrates the PAC's ability to identify competitive races and deploy capital at levels that smaller campaign operations struggle to match.
The strategic premise behind the 2026 spending is post-presidential risk management. President Trump's term ends in January 2029. Polls and analyst projections, according to 21Shares' October 2026 research note, indicate Democrats are expected to win at least one chamber of Congress in the November 3, 2026 midterms.
A Democratic-controlled chamber would shift committee leadership and oversight priorities. According to The Block, reporting on October 28, industry observers expect a Democratic majority to "ramp up oversight" while potentially offering only a "scaled-back version" of the Clarity Act. One unnamed Democratic senator told CNBC that a Democratic-controlled Congress would "absolutely not" prioritize the bill.
The crypto industry's response is to pursue bipartisan insurance. By backing 13 Democrats alongside 19 Republicans through Fairshake, the industry aims to maintain allies in both caucuses. This is not altruism — Fairshake's internal selection criterion is a candidate's prior vote for the CLARITY Act.
The underlying arithmetic: market structure legislation requires 60 Senate votes. Neither party is projected to hold 60 seats after November 3. The industry needs cross-party support regardless of the election outcome, and its spending is structured accordingly.
Despite $189 million in election spending, crypto ranks low among voter priorities. KuCoin's Flash News service reported that only 13% of voters identify cryptocurrency regulation as a priority issue for the midterms, citing polling data.
This disconnect explains Fairshake's advertising strategy. Rather than running ads about blockchain regulation or token classification — topics with limited voter salience — the PAC's affiliates focus on jobs, taxes, and economic security. The crypto funding is the means; the messaging is conventional.
The question for the industry is whether buying access translates to policy outcomes. The GENIUS Act's passage in 2025 — with 18 Democratic senators voting in favor — suggests the spending model can produce legislative results. The CLARITY Act's failure suggests it has limits, particularly when internal party politics (Democratic demands for conflict-of-interest provisions) and Republican defections intersect.
The crypto industry's $189 million midterm investment is the most expensive corporate lobbying campaign in the 2026 cycle by a factor of two, according to Public Citizen data. It is also a direct response to a legislative failure. The CLARITY Act's death in the Senate on September 15 left market structure regulation in the hands of agency rulemaking — a temporary instrument that depends on executive branch continuity.
Fairshake's bipartisan structure, 95% primary win rate, and willingness to spend $52 million on a single Senate race demonstrate an industry that has learned from the 2024 cycle and scaled its political apparatus accordingly. Whether the spending produces durable legislation or merely preserves the status quo will become clearer after voters go to the polls on November 3.
The data is unambiguous on one point: crypto is now a permanent fixture of American campaign finance. Total identified political spending across 2024 and 2026 exceeds $359 million. That figure will grow.