Key facts
- Crypto political action committees spent more than $60 million to defeat Sherrod Brown, who won Ohio's Senate race.
- Fairshake and affiliates spent at least $13.5 million against Nebraska independent Dan Osborn, who lost to Republican Pete Ricketts.
- Fairshake backed 32 House candidates, 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats, and said it had won 29 of 34 races it spent on.
- Of six House candidates Fairshake spent $1 million or more on, it had won three so far, with some races not yet called.
- TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg said the results soured the political environment for crypto.
- Ripple chief legal officer Stu Alderoty said Democratic probes into Trump's crypto dealings were likely, saying the writing is on the wall.
The crypto industry's roughly $200 million election spending campaign lost its most expensive target on November 3, when Democrat and crypto skeptic Sherrod Brown won Ohio's Senate race despite crypto political action committees spending more than $60 million to defeat him, Reuters reported. The race was one of the most expensive in Senate history, and strategists viewed it as a test of crypto's political influence after the Senate in September voted against advancing major crypto legislation known as the Clarity Act, with Democrats opposed.
The leading industry super PAC, Fairshake, whose chief backers include Coinbase, Ripple and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, said it had won 29 of the 34 races it spent on, with several races not yet called. It backed 32 House candidates, 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats. Of the six House candidates on whom Fairshake spent $1 million or more, it had won three so far.
Fairshake and its affiliates spent at least $13.5 million to defeat Nebraska independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn, a former labor union leader, who lost to Republican Senator Pete Ricketts, who voted for the Clarity Act. "As the biggest spender in the Nebraska Senate race, we're proud to have helped Sen. Ricketts weather the waves of a hard-fought cycle," said Geoff Vetter, a spokesperson for Fairshake.
TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg said in a note on November 3: "We see this as souring the political environment for crypto." The crypto industry has spent roughly half a billion dollars over the past two election cycles to build a bipartisan coalition of congressional allies. In 2024, it helped elect dozens of crypto-friendly lawmakers who later passed a law to promote adoption of dollar-backed tokens known as stablecoins.
With Democrats taking Congress, the industry faces oversight and potential investigations, particularly its ties to Trump. Cryptocurrencies posted overnight losses on the results but recovered on Wednesday, November 4. Bitcoin was last up 3.1% above $80,000. Stu Alderoty, chief legal officer at Ripple, said before the results: "Where crypto is today compared to we were two years ago is night and day." On the possibility of Democratic probes into Trump's crypto business dealings, he said: "I think the writing is on the wall."