Coinbase pledges further US$25 million of political funding for crypto

COINBASE Global committed another US$25 million of funding to Fairshake, a political action committee for the digital-asset industry that has become an influential player in the US election. 

Fairshake will use the money in the lead up to the 2026 midterm vote to support pro-crypto candidates, Coinbase’s chief executive Brian Armstrong said in a post on the X social media website on Wednesday (Oct 30). 

“We’re not going to slow down post-election,” Armstrong said during the largest US crypto exchange’s third-quarter earnings call. “We know we need to have pro-crypto legislation passed in this country.” 

Fairshake – funded by digital-asset industry heavyweights like Coinbase, Ripple Labs and Andreessen Horowitz – has sought to push both Republican and Democratic candidates to take crypto seriously. It was poised to spend more than US$40 million in the final weeks of the 2024 US elections after already deploying US$140 million on dozens of congressional races nationwide.

During the presidential campaign, Republican nominee Donald Trump embraced the crypto industry in an about-face from his earlier criticism of the sector as a scam. His rival, Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris, has vowed to support a regulatory framework for digital assets if elected.

“We get the US election results in six days, and no matter how you slice it, it will be the most pro-crypto Congress ever,” Armstrong also wrote in his message on X. “The crypto voter is already a force to be reckoned with, but it will continue to grow.”

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The Securities and Exchange Commission under Chair Gary Gensler led a crackdown on crypto following a market rout in 2022 and a series of blowups, including the bankruptcy of Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraudulent FTX exchange.

Irked executives complained loudly that the US needs clearer rules for crypto and built up a campaign finance war chest to further their agenda. The push proved divisive, as some critics accuse the digital-asset sector of hubris for thinking its interests merit a seat at the high table of politics.

Coinbase’s third-quarter results missed Wall Street expectations, pressuring the company’s shares in late trading. The stock is up about 22 per cent this year, trailing a 72 per cent advance in Bitcoin over the same period. BLOOMBERG