Support Us

Elizabeth Warren’s Crypto Haters Are Burning Cash in Her Senate Race

Crypto big shots have spent more than three times on her opponent as small donors.

Matt Sledge

October 16 2024, 11:24 a.m.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, July 12, 2023. Warren called on the Federal Reserve to halt interest-rate increases as the US inflation rate slid to a more than two-year low. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a TV interview on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 12, 2023. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

There’s zero chance that a Republican will win this year’s Senate election in Massachusetts. That hasn’t stopped the crypto industry from lighting money on fire in a doomed bid to defeat Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Cryptocurrency figures have given the majority of the donations or loans to the effort to replace Warren, an industry scourge, with Republican John Deaton, campaign finance reports filed Tuesday show.

Crypto industry big shots have given more than three times as much to Deaton’s campaign, or a super PAC supporting him, than small-dollar donors. Their combined $3.6 million effort pales in comparison to the $19 million Warren has raised, but it shows how much her criticisms have enraged the crypto world.

In their first debate Tuesday, Warren took a swipe at Deaton’s close ties to the industry.

“His crypto buddies are going to want a return on their investment. He’s going to fight for crypto.”

“I fight for everybody, fight for working people,” Warren said. “If John Deaton has a chance to go to Washington, his crypto buddies are going to want a return on their investment. He’s going to fight for crypto.”

Warren trounced her Republican opponent by a 24-point margin six years ago and is gliding toward a similar result this time, according to recent polls.

Still, cryptocurrency industry leaders have contributed heavily to the push to elect Deaton, an attorney who has sued the Securities and Exchange Commission on behalf of the industry. Crypto trade publications dubbed the contest “the first Bitcoin election.”

When it comes to Deaton’s own campaign organization, he has loaned or donated to himself more than he has raised from individual contributions.

A pro-Deaton super PAC called the Commonwealth Unity Fund, which is bankrolled by the industry, has raised and spent more money than Deaton’s campaign.

The San Francisco-based crypto company Ripple Labs gave the PAC $1 million in May. Bitcoin-boosting twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss chipped in $500,000 each in July. Days later, the co-founder of the Tether stablecoin, Philip Potter, contributed nearly $500,000 more. The PAC’s Tuesday filing shows that its only more recent receipt was from a crypto industry lawyer.

A different crypto super PAC, Fairshake, has raised more than $160 million while spending its money on races expected to be far closer: the Republican bid to unseat Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. The massive spending campaign is aimed at convincing Congress to relax regulations on crypto.

During the Tuesday debate, Deaton painted the crypto industry as a way for ordinary Americans to escape bank fees — something Warren helped to do by spurring the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“I can’t help it,” he said, of the industry spending on his race. “When she goes to ban an entire industry, that they are motivated against her because they see a viable candidate.”