Political donations from or in support of the crypto industry have hit a record-high $190 million so far this election cycle, according to data from the Federal Election Commission and a report by crypto and blockchain analyst James Delmore.
According to FEC data, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are leading the pack of donors, giving a combined $10.1 million, or just over $5 million each, including about $1.7 million combined in bitcoin to the Trump 47 Committee. The twins also made sizable donations to two other pro-Trump PACs and a bipartisan pro-crypto PAC.
Chris Larsen, co-founder of San Francisco-based Ripple Labs, gave $2.4 million to mostly Democrat candidates, while other top executives from the company donated just over $600,000.
Executives from crypto exchanges Kraken and Coinbase also opened up their virtual wallets.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong donated more than $1.3 million to several PACs in support of both Democrat and Republican candidates. Jesse Powell, co-founder and chair of Kraken gave just over $1 million to the Trump campaign.
Delmore told CNBC that crypto spending this cycle is nearly double where it was in the 2022 midterms, when it only accounted for about $98 million. It's 13 times higher than in the 2020 election, when there was just about $15 million in crypto donations, according to data from FEC and OpenSecrets.
Kate McManus ✉
Kate McManus is a New Jersey-based Newsmax writer who's spent more than two decades as a journalist.