Nearly 100 million US dollars in “monetary power”, how crypto “financiers” influence the US election

Original title: Crypto Titans Threaten to Unleash War Chest on Hostile Lawmakers

Original authors: Allyson Versprille, Yueqi Yang, Karen Breslau, Bloomberg

Original compilation: Mary Liu, than Tweet BitpushNews

The cryptocurrency lobby is issuing a warning to U.S. political candidates: Stand with us or risk losing at the polls.

Last week’s defeat of Democratic Representative Katie Porter in the California Senate primary is one example.

In order to prevent Porter from being elected to the Senate, deep-pocketed crypto industry players invest has spent $10 million on advertising and canvassing, paving a clearer path for another of her Democratic colleagues, Adam Schiff, who is widely seen as more crypto-friendly, to take office in November.

Cryptobillionaires are providing massive support and funding for US elections.

Fairshake, a pro-cryptocurrency super political action committee (PAC), has amassed a total of about $75 million for U.S. elections.

Supporters include Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, digital asset exchange Gemini founders Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, and a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen .

Crypto supporters acknowledge that their chances of bringing down one of the industry’s harshest critics, veteran U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who will be slated this year are slim. Running for re-election in a relatively safe seat. But they plan to use Porter's defeat to pressure the Democratic senator's more vulnerable allies.

Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, a cryptocurrency trade organization, accepted In the interview, he said that working with Warren "will make your election more difficult."

One of the candidates Smith’s team says it is watching is Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who chairs the Senate Banking Committee and has been vocal in calling for tighter regulations on cryptocurrencies. At the forefront of a restricted group of legislators.

Smith said of Brown: “It’s an open question what actions, if any, he will take with cryptocurrencies over the remainder of the year. )."

A spokesman for Brown's Senate campaign declined to comment.

New legislation

The crypto industry is concerned about legislative proposals aimed at combating illicit finance. There are mainly two bills, one sponsored by Warren and Republican Senator Roger Marshall, and the other proposed by Senators Mark Warner, Jack Reed, Mitt Romney, and Mike Rounds, aiming to improve the anti-money laundering regulations currently in place at banks and other financial institutions. Rules apply to cryptocurrency companies.

Criminal networks use cryptocurrencies to move illicit funds and use tools to make transactions more anonymous.

Organizations such as the Blockchain Association and the Digital Chamber of Commerce say the current bill would impose unworkable requirements and stifle crypto innovation.

The day before the Super Tuesday primary, a "support Cryptocurrency" rally attendees

The politically strong rhetoric represents a significant evolution from a year ago, when a series of scandals and business failures left the cryptocurrency industry facing Credibility crisis, one of the stars, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), was convicted on criminal charges.

Other optimism surrounding cryptocurrencies appears to have evaporated amid regulatory scrutiny and struggles to bring the technology to practical use, as regulators continue to crack down on the industry An all-round attack.

Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee who has often questioned the utility of cryptocurrencies, said the industry’s impact on elections may be overstated, but it The ability to pour millions of dollars into a campaign doesn't escape the attention of lawmakers.

Whether they were really decisive may not be as important as shooting more than 430 members of Congress, and they didn’t, he said in an interview. I did not participate in the election of these congressmen."

Super Tuesday is the first big test for the Fairshake super PAC.

The next key races that may be entered are the Democratic Senate primaries in Michigan and Maryland - currently headed by retiring Debbie Stabenow, spokesman Josh Vlasto said and Ben Cardin’s seat, as well as Senate Banking Committee member Jon Tester’s campaign in Montana.

ETF Turning Point

The crypto market is rebounding, in large part thanks to U.S. regulator SEC approved a spot Bitcoin ETF in January, a decision that added legitimacy to the crypto industry.

It’s not easy to fully escape the fallout from a series of business failures in 2022 that ultimately led to the bankruptcy of one of the industry’s most high-profile companies, FTX. Easy, the company's co-founder SBF was convicted last year of defrauding customers and is currently awaiting sentencing.

As lawmakers weigh a series of bills to regulate the market, including measures to crack down on illegal finance and control stablecoins, crypto tokens pegged to assets such as the U.S. dollar, the Other players in the crypto industry are left to rebuild relationships on Capitol Hill, where the new rules could change how businesses operate if the bill is adopted.

At the same time, the industry is waiting to see whether the US SEC will approve an ETF tracking Ethereum, the world's second largest cryptocurrency.

Critics say they remain skeptical of the industry's ability to influence elections. They point out that some TV ads paid for by cryptocurrency-related PACs ahead of Super Tuesday deliberately did not mention cryptocurrencies, instead focusing on hot-button issues like abortion bills and gun safety in pro-Democratic messages, or promoting lower-cost policies for Republican candidates. Taxes and Inflation.

Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, an organization pushing for greater market regulation, said: "They know the public's perception of cryptocurrencies is like kryptonite. Again, it will just turn off more voters than excite them. But you can bet that no matter where the crypto industry is and how much money they spend, they will claim that they influenced the outcome of the election and expect victory to reward them. 》

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