Bloomberg reported on January 31 that Coinbase and Ripple are among the largest donors to a super political action committee aimed at supporting pro-crypto politicians.
Coinbase contributed $24.5 million to Fairshake, PAC spokesman Josh Vlasto told Bloomberg. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also personally gave $1 million to the political action committee. These donations make up about a third of the $85 million Fairshake has raised to date, according to the report.
Additionally, Vlasto told Bloomberg today that Ripple has donated $20 million to Fairshake. Two venture capital firms — Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Electric Capital — donated $20 million and $500,000, respectively.
Bloomberg said more information about Fairshake's donors will be revealed in an upcoming filing with the US Federal Election Commission.
The companies did not confirm the amounts of donations
Although none of the above companies have publicly confirmed their donation amounts, Coinbase acknowledged that they and Armstrong had contributed to Fairshake in a blog post published in December.
Coinbase said Fairshake had raised just $78 million at the time. She added that the founders of Circle, Kraken, Ark Invest and Gemini, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, were among the PAC's many other donors.
Bloomberg also obtained comment from Colin McKeown, head of government affairs at Andreessen Horowitz, today. Supporting bipartisan candidates with long-term views is “an important part of ensuring we develop clear rules of the road for blockchain technology and digital assets,” McKeown said. But the actor did not confirm the reported donation amount.
Fairshake supports both major parties
Fairshake supports pro-crypto political candidates on both sides of the political aisle, but so far slightly favors Democratic candidates.
Current data from OpenSecrets indicates that Fairshake spent $700,000 on 13 Democratic candidates and $551,000 on eight Republican candidates.
Bloomberg noted that Fairshake's largest spending to date has gone toward Republican Representative Patrick McHenry, a lawmaker widely involved in cryptocurrency legislation who is scheduled to retire in January 2025. Other funding has notably gone toward Republican Representative Tom Emmer and Democratic Representatives Josh Gottheimer. And Richie Torres. .
