This “unprecedented” spending represents nearly half — 48 percent — of all corporate money contributed to this year’s elections, the report from progressive consumer rights watchdog group Public Citizen found.
“That cryptocurrency companies like Coinbase and Ripple are able to spend over a hundred million dollars to silence crypto’s critics and elevate its backers embodies everything that is wrong with the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision,” said Rick Claypool, research director at Public Citizen and author of the report.
“Corporations can’t vote,” he continued. “But the sole reason crypto is a hot-button topic in this election cycle is that crypto businesses are spending eye-popping sums to make themselves impossible to ignore.”
In its controversial decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot limit campaign spending by corporations and outside groups.
Crypto firms have spent a combined $129 million over the last three election cycles, representing 15 percent of all known corporate contributions since the Citizens United decision in 2010, according to the report.
The only industry that has outspent crypto during the same period is the fossil fuel industry, which has spent $176 million over the past 14 years, Public Citizen found.
Most of the crypto industry’s spending this cycle has gone toward pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake and its affiliates, which have received nearly $114 million, according to the report.
Crypto firms Coinbase and Ripple are some of the biggest spenders in the digital asset space so far this year. Coinbase has contributed $50.5 million, with $45.5 million going to Fairshake. Ripple has given $45 million to Fairshake and $49 million overall.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
