Crypto PAC Spending Hits $170 Million as Midterms Near

About $170 million. That is roughly how much the three biggest crypto industry super PACs have poured into the 2026 midterm elections, according to a CoinDesk tally published Sunday, two days before voters head to the polls on November 3. Most of that crypto PAC spending has gone to help Republicans in the final stretch, even though the industry likes to describe its giving as bipartisan.

The figure leaves out smaller checks written by individual crypto executives and dark money that never has to be disclosed, so the real total is likely higher.

Fairshake put $154 million to work, a third of it in Ohio

Fairshake, the industry's main political arm, and its affiliated PACs have devoted $154 million to favored candidates, a spokesman told CoinDesk. The group is largely funded by Coinbase, a16z and Ripple Labs, and it still holds a $56 million reserve for the next election cycle. Coinbase has had a busy autumn on several fronts, as its latest quarterly results showed.

Fairshake describes itself on its official site as a federal independent expenditure committee registered with the Federal Election Commission. That means it cannot coordinate with campaigns. Its money goes into ads, mailers, texts and similar outreach that it runs on its own.

Its single largest bet is in Ohio. Fairshake is spending almost $56 million to keep former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown from winning back a Senate seat, this time the one held by Republican Jon Husted. That one race accounts for more than a third of the group's total.

Brown is a familiar target. In 2024, Fairshake spent about $40 million helping Bernie Moreno beat him, according to CoinDesk. The new Ohio effort is bigger, and so far it has not knocked Brown out of contention. Polls show him with a slight lead over Husted, mostly within the margin of error, and the prediction market Kalshi gave him a 68% chance of returning to the Senate, CoinDesk reported.

Fairshake's other large general election commitment is almost $11 million to defend Republican Senator Pete Ricketts in Nebraska. The group has also spent millions on Democrats, mostly during primaries. Spokesman Geoff Vetter said Fairshake supports candidates in both parties who back crypto and American innovation.

The Winklevoss twins' PAC went all in for the GOP

The second group, Digital Freedom Fund, is backed mainly by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Of the three big crypto PACs, it is the only one running a purely single party campaign.

FEC filings cited by CoinDesk show it spent more than $8 million this month trying to keep Democratic challengers out of Senate seats in three states:

• Ohio: $7.2 million in total, including $4.2 million opposing Brown.
• Texas: $393,000 opposing Democrat James Talarico and $166,000 backing Republican Ken Paxton.
• Iowa: $474,000 opposing Democrat Josh Turek and $167,000 backing Republican Ashley Hinson.

Add the Winklevoss money in Ohio to Fairshake's, and the crypto industry's stake in defeating Brown comes to about $63 million.

The third group, Fellowship Fund, is funded by Cantor Fitzgerald, which has close ties to stablecoin issuer Tether. It gave $3.8 million to Republican candidates earlier in the year, including Paxton in Texas, then endorsed three Democrats with a combined $600,000. Half of that went to Representative Ritchie Torres of New York.

All three groups favored Republicans over Democrats.

An FEC outage blurred the final week of disclosures

Tracking the last days of this money has been harder than usual. On October 27, the Federal Election Commission said its electronic filing system was down, and Reuters reported, citing an email, that the agency's website had been targeted by hackers, according to Cointelegraph. An FEC spokesperson told the outlet its IT staff were working to restore service.

During the outage, filings showed no new expenditures from Fairshake, its affiliates Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress, Fellowship or Digital Freedom Fund since the previous Sunday. Spending that happened in that window may not be visible until reports catch up.

Why the money may not buy the next Congress

The spending is aimed less at rewarding lawmakers who worked on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and more at stopping Democrats who could be tougher on the industry, CoinDesk reported. That strategy carries real risk. Kalshi traders put the odds of Democrats taking both chambers at about 70%.

If that happens, Brown could land a powerful post. Analysts quoted by CoinDesk see him as a candidate to chair the Senate Agriculture Committee, while Elizabeth Warren is positioned to lead the Banking Committee. Any major crypto bill would still need 60 votes in the Senate.

Not everyone in the industry likes the approach. Dennis Porter, chief executive of the Satoshi Action Fund, told CoinDesk the Ohio push was "a staggering strategic blunder."

Regulators have handed the industry wins this year, such as Ripple's national trust bank approval and new stablecoin listings like RLUSD on Coinbase. Traders are also positioning for the result, with one $68 million options bet targeting $90,000 bitcoin just after the vote. Whether $170 million protects that momentum will be clear on Tuesday night, and you can follow the fallout on our crypto page.