Jump Crypto put another $10 million into the U.S. political action committee (PAC) that’s seeking to rush as many pro-crypto members into Congress as possible to achieve legislation the industry is after, a spokesman for the PAC confirmed.
The total of $15 million from Jump, a Chicago-based investment firm, means almost $169 million so far has been amassed by Fairshake and its affiliated PACs as of Wednesday, according to spokesman Josh Vlasto, giving the young industry one of the most potent campaign-finance operations in the 2024 elections. The so-called super PACs have been flooding primaries with large-scale ad spending and seeing many of its favored candidates cruising toward what will be likely general-election wins in November.
“The crypto and blockchain communities have truly come together to form a sustainable bipartisan coalition and an effective operation that is built for the long term,” Vlasto said in a statement. “We will continue to support candidates who are committed to getting things done and working with the industry to pass responsible regulation that drives innovation, creates jobs, and sustains America’s global leadership.”
A spokeswoman for Jump declined to comment on the donation. The company’s eight-digit addition follows a recent series of matching $25-million follow-up donations from big crypto firms Coinbase Inc. (COIN), Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Fairshake and its brethren (two PACs called Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress) were still holding onto $109 million as of the May 31 filing with the Federal Election Commission, Vlasto said, with less than five months to go before the final voting. The spokesman confirmed the PAC has no plans to support presidential candidates, so the aim is to find proven congressional incumbents and crypto-friendly candidates.
The sitting members of Congress are suddenly more easy to evaluate on that score. Previously, there weren’t a lot of practical measures of crypto support to help grade politicians in the House of Representatives and Senate, but both chambers have now been through votes on digital assets efforts.
In May, the House passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) that’s the first wide-reaching crypto oversight legislation to clear either of the chambers of Congress. Its chances in the Senate are limited – depending on whether key lawmakers can somehow package it with a must-pass bill. But a side bonus for the industry was that it immediately learned which of the 435 members of the House are pulling for crypto regulations.
Also in May, both chambers voted to reverse a contentious Securities and Exchange Commission crypto account policy, Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (SAB 121). The effort was smacked down by a veto from President Joe Biden, but it revealed 11 Democrats in the Senate were willing to join Republicans in bucking the SEC policy and the White House’s preference.
Both efforts saw a higher-than-expected showing of support from Democrats, and the tallies are being used to assess lawmakers. Stand With Crypto, an advocacy group started by Coinbase, maintains a grading system for politicians. The “D” grade for Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), for instance, reflects his no vote on the SAB 121 resolution, while the “B” grade for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) shows he was for it.
“Recent votes have helped us educate our advocates on where politicians stand on crypto,” said Sabrina Siddiqui, a spokesman for the group, in a statement. She said Stand With Crypto reached more than a million online members several months earlier than anticipated because “people were coalescing behind these key votes.”
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