Fairshake, a super political action committee (PAC) in the United States that supports cryptocurrency, has received a generous $25 million donation from Ripple. This brings Fairshake’s total funds raised for the 2024 election cycle to between $102 million and $110 million, making it the richest nonpartisan super PAC in this election cycle and the third richest overall.
Ripple had also contributed $25 million to Fairshake in 2023. Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, stated that the company supports Fairshake because it is dedicated to securing the United States as a hub for innovative technologies that will shape the future of the internet.
Fairshake’s donor list is filled with prominent figures from the crypto world. Some of the notable contributors include former Bitfinex executive Phil Potter, who has donated almost $2 million, Fred Ersham and Matt Huang from Paradigm, Wences Casares from Xapo Bank, executives from Electric Capital and Lightspark Group (backed by a16z), and Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest.
Fairshake has reportedly supported politicians such as Patrick McHenry, Dusty Johnson, Wiley Nickel, and others, while opposing California progressive Katie Porter.
While Fairshake claims to be nonpartisan, data from Open Secret (which does not include the recent Ripple donation) suggests that the PAC has primarily used its funds to oppose Democratic candidates, while not opposing any Republicans. It has spent $629,646 to support Democrats and $551,675 to support Republicans. As a super PAC, Fairshake is not allowed to directly contribute to candidates or coordinate with them.
Coinbase, a popular cryptocurrency exchange, has also established its own PAC called Stand with Crypto. This PAC independently donates to Fairshake and has raised at least $87.2 million from its approximately 860,000 members. The largest donation to Stand with Crypto was $1 million from MoonPay, followed by a $20,000 contribution.
In the world of cryptocurrency, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) faces a tough battle against the legal firepower of the industry, much like the clash between Godzilla and Kong.