Crypto doesn’t need your party to win, just its candidates

The crypto industry has finally found a way to participate in America's partisan warfare without committing to either of the (only) two available parties: help elect people who agree with it about crypto, then let them argue about everything else.

Fairshake's latest House spending plans cover 32 candidates, with 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats on the list. Six are slated for $1 million each in support, while the amounts for the other races haven't been disclosed, according to the AP.

The Super PAC is essentially giving both parties a reason to keep crypto on its policy agenda no matter what voters decide about who controls Congress.

Nothing wrong with that. Since the dawn of time, companies whose businesses depend on financial law have wanted a say in what that law looks like.

Their owners, investors, and ultimately their customers expect them to defend the business, and the people doing the defending would rather have friends than foes writing the rules.

The crypto industry has grown so much that dozens of crypto companies in the US can and want to defend their business with the same strength and money as their much larger tradfi counterparts. And seeing how crypto is largely politically ambiguous, these companies can attack both fronts with the same amount of strength.

They invest almost equally in Democratic and Republican candidates, from local municipal contests to Congressional elections.

They can defend their donations any way the wind turns: Democrats can make their involvement in crypto regulation sound like tightening the reins on evil capitalist corporations, while Republicans can make it look like they're liberating hard-working Americans from the shackles of government-controlled money.

Crypto companies don't really care what it looks or sounds like; they just want to reap tangible legislative crops from the seeds they've sown.

But Fairshake is a federal independent expenditure-only committee, which means it can only finance political activity outside candidates' campaigns, under rules that specifically prohibit coordination.

So when we hear that it announced $1 million in support for a candidate, it doesn't mean it just gave them a million in cash.

Republicans French Hill, Bryan Steil, and Bill Huizenga are among the six candidates receiving the disclosed $1 million commitments. Hill chairs House Financial Services, Steil chairs its digital-assets subcommittee, and Huizenga is the full committee's vice chair.

The three Democrats are Janelle Bynum, Steven Horsford, and Derek Tran, Roll Call reported.

The selection of Republican candidates puts money behind people that already have significant influence over financial legislation. The Democratic donation rewards members of the coalition that voted for the industry's largest and most consequential bill: the CLARITY Act.

In July 2025, the House passed CLARITY 294–134, with 216 Republicans and 78 Democrats voting yes. Every voting Republican supported it, while Democrats split.

That's why backing Democrats who crossed that divide tells other Democrats that there can be electoral help (i.e., money) on the other side of a pro-crypto vote. Backing the Republican committee leadership just protects relationships with the people already doing the legislative work.

While Fairshake's political spending is and has to be transparent, the motivations behind each candidate's support for crypto never are. There are a million reasons why a politician would support the crypto industry, so we can't assume any of the candidates were bought with the donations. Donors usually choose allies who already agree with them or at least somewhat agree.

The money just creates a pretty good incentive for other politicians who might be on the verge of supporting actually to jump ship.

In a hypothetical race, suppose an outside group spends heavily to advertise your campaign while your opponent has to buy the same airtime with their own money. Your campaign can then devote more of its own money elsewhere.

The assistance is valuable even if you never helped write the advertisement, and even if the advertisement discusses local jobs. In this example, the outside group helps pay for the politician's general public image while pursuing a much narrower policy goal.