Digital payments company Ripple is using its deep pockets to double down on efforts to pack Congress with pro-crypto politicians this election cycle, FOX Business has learned.
On Wednesday morning, Ripple announced a $25 million donation to Fairshake, a crypto-focused Super Political Action Committee funded by industry titans that supports both Democrat and Republican Congressional candidates in favor of crypto innovation in the U.S.
This is Ripple’s second $25 million installment to Fairshake in the last year, making it the super PAC’s largest donor and swelling the crypto industry’s war chest to over $110 million, according to Fairshake.
"Our contributions to Fairshake are just one of the many ways Ripple will actively invest in educating voters on the role crypto will play in the future and the dangers of the anti-crypto stance some policymakers are clinging to in Washington," said Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
Ripple’s political push is part of a wider industry-led effort to make crypto voices heard in the upcoming November elections, which many participants believe could be a turning point in the maturation of the $2 trillion crypto industry.
Ripple has been fighting a contentious battle for more than three years with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which contends Ripple knowingly violated U.S. securities laws by selling its cryptocurrency XRP to investors without registering those sales with the commission.
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The SEC and its Chairman, Gary Gensler, have alienated the crypto industry by bringing a myriad of lawsuits against major players like crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, insisting that the industry is operating out of compliance with U.S. securities laws, while the industry argues it’s being unfairly targeted by an overambitious regulator.
The recent funding push for crypto super PACs comes as Washington, which had soured on crypto following the collapse of defunct crypto exchange FTX, may be starting to shift its views on the industry.
Last week, friendly legislation for digital assets received bipartisan support from House lawmakers and a controversial SEC rule limiting the crypto industry’s access to banking was overturned by a Senate majority, with a handful of Democrats breaking ranks to side with their GOP colleagues against the SEC.
The industry also received a nod from GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who said he would embrace the use of digital assets and end the Biden Administration’s hostility towards them if he were elected. He caused further excitement when he began accepting campaign donations in crypto last week.
Crypto donors are also encouraged by the success Fairshake and its affiliate super PACs have already had in influencing key elections.
Fairshake, which cannot donate directly to individual candidates due to restrictions as a super PAC, notably flexed its money muscle in February when it spent $10M on an ad campaign attacking anti-crypto Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-California) as she sought to fill the Senate seat vacated by the late Dianne Feinstein. Porter lost her bid to fellow Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), a crypto supporter, and blamed crypto industry billionaires who funded Fairshake’s smear campaign for the loss.
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Fairshake and its affiliates have spent more than $40 million this election cycle to influence races in Alabama, California, Texas, Maryland, and North Carolina with the goal of putting crypto allies in positions of political power to get a shot at fair regulation, which the industry believes has long been denied.
"Ripple will not - and the crypto industry should not - keep quiet while unelected regulators actively seek to impede innovation and economic growth that millions of Americans utilize," said Garlinghouse. "The crypto industry intends to remain heavily invested in this effort until we see meaningful change."
