The crypto industry has spent $176 million on the 2026 US midterms, a Reuters investigation found. The super PAC Fairshake, funded by Coinbase, Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz, accounts for most of the total.
Fairshake and its affiliated committee Defend American Jobs had spent $150.8 million through October 20. Other crypto-backed groups added roughly $25 million, with spending spread across more than 100 congressional races. Fairshake alone spent $196 million over the full 2024 cycle, by comparison. The investigation did not break down the spending by state beyond Ohio.
Separate tracking by researcher Molly White's FollowTheCrypto.org project tells a similar story. Fairshake rolled $64 million over from 2024 and brought in $129 million more this cycle, led by Coinbase, Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz as its biggest backers, giving $56 million, $48 million and $24 million respectively.
The money targets lawmakers who backed the CLARITY Act, a bill that would split crypto oversight between the SEC and the CFTC and remains stalled in the Senate. Solana Policy Institute's head of government relations, Colin McLaren, called the spending “an investment in the future” that buys predictable crypto regulation for decades to come.
In Ohio, Defend American Jobs spent $46 million against Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, who previously led the Senate Banking Committee, and for Republican Jon Husted. Crypto groups' combined spending on that race topped $68 million.
In Illinois, Fairshake put $2.5 million against state Representative La Shawn Ford, who said of the ads targeting him, “It was personal and it was hurtful.”
