Trump made a fortune with crypto, now threatens election damage

The crypto lobby is pumping tens of millions of dollars into the US midterm elections around the corner. That money is increasingly turning against the industry itself, as Democratic candidates use crypto as evidence of corruption around President Donald Trump.

And with the ballot in eleven days, that bill can still add up considerably.

Former Senator Sherrod Brown wants his seat back in Ohio. He was previously chairman of the banking committee in the Senate. Fairshake puts at least $40 million into the fight against him. That's a super PAC: an action committee that can spend unlimited campaign money.

Brown uses that headwind in his campaign. “They know I'm going to hold them accountable,” he said in the podcast Pod Save America.

Fairshake gets its money mainly from Coinbase, Ripple and a16z Crypto, but doesn't even mention crypto in its own ads. His opponents often do just that.

Virginia Senator Mark Warner points out in a campaign ad the hundreds of millions of dollars Trump earned from his memecoin. “That's not steering. It's bagging. The corruption has to stop,” he says.

In Florida, Fairshake invested $2 million in a failed attempt to defeat Democrat Oliver Gilbert in the primaries. Brown now has twenty times as much money ready.

The midterms, the midterm elections for Congress, are seen as a judgment on Trump. Corruption is at the top of this list. In a Fox News poll, 88 percent of voters are at least very concerned about corruption, and that's more often than about inflation or healthcare costs.

In addition, the crypto sector is the largest donor to MAGA Inc., Trump's super PAC. According to the progressive think tank Center for American Progress, it's worth nearly $89 million.

Will Ragland is vice president of research at that think tank. According to him, the gamble did yield something for the sector, such as regulators dropping cases, but the price is high. “It didn't have to be that way for the sector,” he said.

Blockchain Association, a lobby club in Washington, says it will continue to work with both parties. Voters find crypto itself unimportant: in a CoinDesk poll from May, it was at the bottom of their list.

The ties with Trump may have cost the sector all of its greatest desire. The Clarity Act, a law with rules for the crypto market, ran aground in the Senate last month. Democrats demanded stricter ethical rules for administrators, and they found what Trump wanted to accept too little.

On November 3, the House of Representatives can go to the Democrats, and perhaps also the Senate. Then the road to a crypto bill becomes even longer, especially when Brown returns. “They know I'm fighting them,” he promised.