Cryptocurrency supporters have donated $94 million to US politicians since 2023

What’s new? Since 2023, US cryptocurrency supporters have donated $94 million to federal political committees to support their like-minded supporters in Congress, which has already surpassed the amount of donations for the entire previous 2020 election cycle ($83 million), Bloomberg reports, citing data from OpenSecrets.

Material by Bloomberg

What else is known? One of the biggest donors is billionaire libertarian and co-founder of global trading and technology firm Susquehanna International Group (SIG) Jeffrey Yass, who supports the Republican Party. He is ranked in the top 5 overall funders in 2022.

Andreessen Horowitz Venture Fund (a16z) founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz each donated $9 million, while billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who run crypto exchange Gemini, gave $2,5 million each.

Crypto exchange Coinbase donated $20,5 million to support digital asset-friendly politicians, while its CEO Brian Armstrong donated $1 million. Fintech company Ripple Labs, which developed the XRP token, donated $20 million.

Donald Trump, who has raised less money for his support compared to incumbent President Joe Biden, last week urged supporters of the crypto industry to cast their votes for his candidacy.

“Crypto is moving out of the US because of hostility towards crypto. We’ll stop it because I don’t want that — if we’re going to embrace it, we have to let them be here,” the former president said at an event for holders of non-fungible tokens from the Trump NFT collection.

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Earlier, the creator of the decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) Uniswap, Hayden Adams, said that Biden’s cronies should push for an immediate change in the approach to crypto regulation. According to the developer, they mistakenly believe that the issue will not matter in the 2024 election.

A recent Paradigm poll showed that cryptocurrency owners favor Trump over Biden: 48% vs. 39%.

In 2022, the cost of lobbying the crypto industry in the United States increased by 121% and amounted to $25,57 million. In 2023, Coinbase took the first place in terms of lobbying expenses.