Coinbase, Ripple and Others Have Donated Over $100 Million in the US Election Campaign, NGO Warns

Ripple, Coinbase and Co. have already donated well over $100 million to the current US election campaign. The consumer advocates at Public Citizen warn against influence in the Trump vs. Harris race.

US presidential candidate Donald Trump has discovered the topic of Bitcoin (BTC) and wants to organize more freedom for the crypto industry. Opponent Kamala Harris is having a hard time with the topic, initially adopting the crypto-critical US policy set by President Joe Biden. In this mixed situation, the US consumer protection organization Public Citizen has presented a report that warns how the crypto industry wants to influence the election campaign with record donations.

According to the report, Ripple and Coinbase alone have each transferred around $50 million to so-called PACs that promote Bitcoin and Co. and support corresponding policies. According to the calculations, a total of $119 million have already flowed from the crypto industry to such lobby groups in the 2024 election campaign – Public Citizen calls this an “unprecedented” sum.

With $28.5 million in donations for Trump’s Republican camp, the Koch Industries group is the most generous donor to date that does not come from the crypto industry.

Coinbase and Ripple spend generously on pro-crypto policies, says Public Citizen

This is not the first time that Public Citizen has concluded that such million-dollar donations are problematic. Industries such as the crypto industry can influence elections through PACs and later secretly demand favors, it says. It is reminiscent of ongoing court cases involving Coinbase, for example. Public Citizen is, in case of doubt, more likely to be assigned to the left-wing camp in the USA and is financed by membership fees and private donations.

The NGO is well known in the USA. In its current report, it fairly points out that Fairshake, by far the largest crypto PAC, does not clearly commit to a political camp, but supports crypto-friendly candidates in contested US states, regardless of whether they belong to the Republican or Democratic party.

But Public Citizen also writes about the crypto industry as a threat to the traditional financial system, automatically linking blockchain to money laundering, tax fraud and other crimes. General Counsel Paul Grewal is currently jumping into the ring for Coinbase on X and, with a view to Public Citizen’s report, is emphasizing the fundamental right to freedom of expression. He also sees movement by candidate Kamala Harris towards re-defining crypto policy and is celebrating this as a success of the millions in donations.

Conclusion: Crypto companies involved in the US election campaign – the topic is set anyway

According to recent surveys, around 40 percent of adults in the USA have assets in Bitcoin and the like – that’s a powerful group of voters. For some of these citizens, the decision between Trump and Harris may actually come down to the issue of crypto, as is the case in local elections in the US states.

It remains interesting, as Public Citizen transparently reveals, that the crypto industry is now raising far more money in the election campaign than traditional industries. Does this pose a threat to democracy and the financial system? The discussion about large donations from the private sector to politics is not only taking place in the USA, but also here and in many other countries.

Anyone who removes ideological blinkers will not find an easy answer. What is new in any case is that a crypto platform called Polymarket is also turning over considerable sums in bets on the outcome of the US elections in November.

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