Molly White's Citation Needed - Follow the Crypto

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

FollowTheCrypto.org: A new project to track cryptocurrency industry spending to influence 2024 elections in the United States. Originally published on July 12, 2024.

I'm Molly White, and you're listening to the audio feed for the Citation Needed Newsletter. You can see the text version of the newsletter online at citation needed.news. Follow the crypto. A new project to track cryptocurrency industry spending to influence 24 elections in the United States. Did you know that the cryptocurrency industry has spent more on 24 elections in the United States than the oil industry? More than the pharmaceutical industry? In fact, the cryptocurrency industry has spent more on 2024 elections than the entire energy sector

and the entire health sector. Those industries, both worth hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars, are being outspent by an industry that, even by generous estimates, is worth less than $20 billion. Most of the cryptocurrency industry's money is going to massive super PACs like Fair Shake, that is, single-issue committees focused only on installing crypto-friendly politicians and ousting those the industry views as a threat. Although these packs have spent only a fraction of the more than $200 million in their combined war chess, they're already finding some success.

Democratic California Senate candidate Katie Porter lost her primary race after Fairshake spent $10 million on attack ads against her. In New York, Fairshake piled on two million. million dollars to oppose Democratic House candidate Jamal Bowman, who ultimately lost his primary race. $1.5 million from the Republican-focused blockchain super PAC, defend American jobs, helped Republican Jim Justice win his West Virginia Senate primary. $1.7 million from the Democrat-focused blockchain super PAC, Protect Progress, similarly aided Shamari figures in winning his Alabama House primary.

Although election spending information is public, it can be incredibly time and labor-intensive to comb through. The crypto industry isn't helping to make things clearer either, with innocuously named packs like Fershake that obscure the goals of the committee. Although the industry likes to claim that crypto is a major election issue with grassroots support, advertisements run by these committees rarely mention cryptocurrency or blockchains at all, or even technology or finance more broadly. And some of these packs funnel money through surrogate committees, obscuring the origins of some of the more heavily partisan spending. Furthermore, the wealthy executives and venture capitalists associated with the industry are spending heavily as individuals, without going through these packs or spending through their companies. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency Exchange, each donated $1 million each to Donald

Trump's presidential campaign. They were followed soon after by Jesse Powell, chairman of the Cracken Cryptocurrency Exchange, who pitched in another million. To help shine a light on this incredible volume of spending, I've spent the past two months working on a new website, Follow the Crypto. You can visit the website at follow thecropto.org. In as real time as is possible, the site tracks contributions to cryptocurrency-focused superpacks like Fairshake, defend American jobs and protect progress. It monitors expenditures by those committees, which races they're influencing, which candidates they're supporting and opposing, and what ads they're running. It also provides a view into other election spending by cryptocurrency companies

and the wealthy individuals associated with them. I have more features I'm planning to add to this site, but I felt it was important to release this as quickly as possible. Despite how much these packs have already raised, the cryptocurrency industry is only ramping up their spending as elections draw nearer. And most of the money held by these packs is still waiting to be deployed. 50% of the funds in Fairshake's coffers, $85 million, was raised in May alone, and that's the last month with complete data. These companies show no sign of slowing down. With this site, we'll be able to follow how these industries are working to buy influence across the country. Please share this widely and send me any feedback, feature requests, questions, or comments you may have.

I'm also going to be setting up Twitter, Mastodon, and Blue Skybots to post when there are contributions or expenditures to these committees. You can follow those in advance on Twitter at follow underscore underscore crypto, on Mastodon at follow the crypto at hackyterm.io, or on Blue Sky at follow the crypto.org. And if you don't already, consider supporting my work with a pay-what-you-want subscription to this newsletter or a one-off contribution. This kind of independent research is what I do full-time, entirely thanks to support from people like you. Thanks for listening to this issue of the citation-needed newsletter. To learn how to support my work, visit mollywhite.net slash support. If you'd like to read the text versions of these episodes, sign up to receive the newsletter in your email, or support my work on a recurring basis, go to citation needed.news.