Fortune continues to shine on Fairshake, a pro-crypto super political action committee (PAC) in the United States, as it receives another major donation. A16z, the managing partner of Andreessen Horowitz crypto and Web3 venture fund, announced on May 30 that they have donated $25 million to Fairshake and its affiliated PACs – Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress.
This contribution places Andreessen Horowitz in direct competition with Ripple, who donated $25 million on May 29, bringing their total donation for this year and 2023 to $50 million. With this new contribution, A16z’s total donation over the past two years amounts to $47 million, as tweeted by Dixon.
Bipartisanship has become a crucial focus for the crypto industry as it seeks Democratic support in the upcoming November U.S. elections.
Venture capital has also entered the political arena, with Andreessen Horowitz making their intentions known in December to support pro-crypto and pro-AI candidates in the elections. Co-founder Ben Horowitz expressed the venture capitalists’ belief that “high-quality regulation can enable an industry to thrive while protecting consumers.”
Having invested at least $7.6 billion in the crypto industry, Andreessen Horowitz first entered the market with an investment in Coinbase in 2013.
Fairshake, on the other hand, still has most of its contributions in reserve. According to nonprofit Open Secret, as of May 29, they have spent $11.3 million. Bloomberg reports that the organization has received $135 million in total contributions. A significant portion of their expenditures, $10 million, has been allocated to negative advertising targeted at Democratic candidates.
The majority of this money was used to campaign against U.S. Representative Katie Porter, who was running for a California Senate seat. The Sacramento Bee highlighted that the ad campaign against her contained mostly false information.
Observers are eagerly anticipating whether the super PAC will support crypto lawyer John Deaton in his Senate race against Elizabeth Warren, a vocal crypto opponent, in Massachusetts.
Fairshake spokesman Josh Vlasto confirmed the Ripple and A16z contributions to Cointelegraph on May 29 and May 30, respectively, but declined to provide further comments.
In fact, crypto voters have already had an impact on the 2024 presidential election, a trend that is expected to continue.