Crypto's $245M Shadow Campaign
Fairshake and its affiliates ran the largest industry super PAC of 2024, and almost never mentioned crypto in the ads.
$11,742,947.79 verified against itemized FEC filings, plus ~$146.3M reported but not independently checked. The two are kept apart on purpose; the full breakdown is in the relationship record below.
The money, at a glance
The diagram is a summary. Every relationship it draws is listed below with its type, direction, exact amount, geography, how the amount was verified, and its receipts.
Every relationship, in full
- Verified against FEC filings
- $11,742,947.79 across 2 flows, summed from itemized records
- Reported, not independently verified
- ~$146.3M across 4 flows. Deliberately not added to the figure above: an estimate plus an exact filing total is neither.
- Excluded from every total
- 0 unresolved and 1 withdrawn claim, listed below with reasons.
| From → to | Relationship | Direction | Amount | How it was established | Geography | Receipts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fairshake to Defend American Jobs + Protect Progress (transfers) | transferred toCommittee-to-committee transfer. Neither end is a candidate. | supports | $86.3MUSD, rounded | ReportedPublished by a news or research organization; not checked against primary filings here. | National | Source |
| Defend American Jobs to Bernie Moreno (R-OH) / oppose Sherrod Brown | spent supportingIndependent expenditure advocating for this candidate. The candidate did not receive or control this money. | supports | ~$40MUSD, rounded | ReportedPublished by a news or research organization; not checked against primary filings here. | Ohio | Source |
| Fairshake to Katie Porter (D-CA), opposed | spent opposingIndependent expenditure advocating against this candidate. No money went to anyone named here. | opposes | ~$10MUSD, rounded | ReportedPublished by a news or research organization; not checked against primary filings here. | California | Source |
| Protect Progress to Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) | spent supportingIndependent expenditure advocating for this candidate. The candidate did not receive or control this money. | supports | ~$10MUSD, rounded | ReportedPublished by a news or research organization; not checked against primary filings here. | Michigan | Source |
| Protect Progress to Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) | spent supportingIndependent expenditure advocating for this candidate. The candidate did not receive or control this money. | supports | $10,039,655.00USD · 5 itemized records | FEC itemizedSummed from itemized FEC records scoped to this committee, this candidate and this support/oppose indicator. | Arizona |
|
| Defend American Jobs to John Deaton (R-MA) | spent supportingIndependent expenditure advocating for this candidate. The candidate did not receive or control this money. | supports | Withdrawn | WithdrawnPreviously published here and retracted. It counts toward no total.This page previously published ~$4.2M of Defend American Jobs spending supporting John Deaton, sourced to Wikipedia. The claim is withdrawn: the 2024 processed Schedule E query for committee C00836221 scoped to Massachusetts returned zero matching records. That scoped empty result is not proof of universal zero spending by this committee, and it does not account for how the $4.2M figure was produced. Separately, Commonwealth Unity Fund (C00875856) does have 17 itemized records supporting Deaton. That is a different committee and its money is shown on its own flow; it is not this committee's spending under another name.See the verified record for this spending | Massachusetts |
|
| Commonwealth Unity Fund to John Deaton (R-MA) | spent supportingIndependent expenditure advocating for this candidate. The candidate did not receive or control this money. | supports | $1,703,292.79USD · 17 itemized records | FEC itemizedSummed from itemized FEC records scoped to this committee, this candidate and this support/oppose indicator. | Massachusetts |
|
Backers and affiliations (13) — association only, no amount and no control asserted
- Coinbase (~$93.5M total 2024 cycle) is associated with FairshakeBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Ripple Labs (~$45M) is associated with FairshakeBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- AH Capital Management / a16z (~$67M as entity) is associated with FairshakeBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Marc Andreessen (~$33.5M personal) is associated with FairshakeBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Ben Horowitz (~$33.5M personal) is associated with FairshakeBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Jump Trading (~$25M) is associated with FairshakeBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Winklevoss Capital (~$4.9M) is associated with FairshakeBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Fairshake (via transfers) is associated with Defend American JobsBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Coinbase is associated with Defend American JobsBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Ripple Labs is associated with Defend American JobsBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Fairshake (via transfers) is associated with Protect ProgressBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Coinbase is associated with Protect ProgressBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Ripple Labs is associated with Protect ProgressBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
Funder → recipient → message
Defend American Jobs spent supporting Bernie Moreno (R-OH) / oppose Sherrod Brown and ran Ohio TV: attack & support ads
In Ohio, Defend American Jobs portrayed Bernie Moreno as aligned with Trump's economic agenda and framed Sherrod Brown as weak on the border and China, promising lower gas and grocery prices and energy independence. No ad mentioned crypto or Moreno's founding of a blockchain company.
Fairshake, a super PAC formed in March 2023 and funded primarily by Coinbase, Ripple Labs, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), raised $260 million through the 2024 election cycle, placing it among the top five outside-spending groups in the country. Its two affiliated super PACs, Defend American Jobs (Republican primaries) and Protect Progress (Democratic primaries), spent a combined $92 million in independent expenditures while Fairshake itself spent an additional $40.7 million directly. Together the three entities disbursed nearly $196 million across the 2024 cycle per FEC filings. Heading into 2026, Fairshake reported $125.8 million in cash on hand (FEC-confirmed) and a combined war chest across all three entities described in contemporaneous reporting as $193 million, again among the best-funded outside groups in the country.
Despite being funded entirely by the digital-assets sector, the vast majority of ads Fairshake and its affiliates ran in 2024 focused on topics chosen to resonate with swing voters: immigration, inflation, China competition, and healthcare rather than disclose the sponsor's actual policy interest. The PAC backed the winning candidate in 33 of 35 contested primaries it entered. Its marquee win was the Ohio Senate race, where Defend American Jobs spent over $40 million to boost Republican Bernie Moreno against Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown.
Three different totals appear on this page and they measure different things, so it is worth saying which is which. The $245 million in the title is CNBC's figure for the operation's overall campaign-finance footprint through the 2024 election, cited in the ad-strategy note below. The $260 million is what Fairshake itself raised, matching the first sentence above, and the roughly $196 million is what the three entities together actually disbursed per FEC filings. None of the three is wrong; none of them is the same number.
Two candidate-level figures were checked against primary FEC records on 2026-09-13 and both changed. Protect Progress support for Ruben Gallego, previously carried here as '~$10M per Wikipedia', is exactly $10,039,655.00 across five itemized Schedule E records. The ~$4.2 million of Defend American Jobs support for John Deaton is withdrawn: the scoped 2024 Massachusetts query for that committee returned no records at all. The Deaton support spending that does exist, $1,703,292.79 across 17 records, belongs to Commonwealth Unity Fund, a separate committee with no affiliation named in its filing. It is shown on its own node with its own receipt, and its money is not moved onto Defend American Jobs to keep the old story intact. Everything on this page labeled 'reported' is still news reporting rather than a filing we have read.
The funders
Fairshake
Pro-crypto deregulationSuper PAC · Crypto-industry-aligned · FEC C00835959
Backers and affiliations (association only)
- • Coinbase (~$93.5M total 2024 cycle)
- • Ripple Labs (~$45M)
- • AH Capital Management / a16z (~$67M as entity)
- • Marc Andreessen (~$33.5M personal)
- • Ben Horowitz (~$33.5M personal)
- • Jump Trading (~$25M)
- • Winklevoss Capital (~$4.9M)
Electing a 'bipartisan' Congress supportive of 'clear rules for the digital economy' and opposing incumbents the industry views as hostile to digital assets.
No source citation on file for this stated position.
Defend American Jobs
Republican-lane pro-cryptoSuper PAC · Crypto-industry-aligned · FEC C00836221
Registered as Super PAC (Independent Expenditure-Only) (type O) · first filed 2023-03-29 · affiliated committee: NONE
Identity verified.
Backers and affiliations (association only)
- • Fairshake (via transfers)
- • Coinbase
- • Ripple Labs
Supports Republican candidates aligned with the crypto industry's regulatory agenda; runs positive and contrast ads focused on mainstream economic and security themes.
No source citation on file for this stated position.
Protect Progress
Democratic-lane pro-cryptoSuper PAC · Crypto-industry-aligned · FEC C00848440
Registered as Super PAC (Independent Expenditure-Only) (type O) · first filed 2023-08-18 · affiliated committee: FAIRSHAKE
Identity verified.
Backers and affiliations (association only)
- • Fairshake (via transfers)
- • Coinbase
- • Ripple Labs
Supports Democratic candidates aligned with the crypto industry's regulatory agenda; runs positive and contrast ads emphasizing Democratic policy themes.
No source citation on file for this stated position.
Commonwealth Unity Fund
Massachusetts Senate spenderSuper PAC · Unaffiliated on inspected evidence · FEC C00875856
Registered as Super PAC (Independent Expenditure-Only) (type O) · first filed 2024-04-11 · affiliated committee: NONE
Identity verified. Registration and itemized Schedule E records inspected 2026-09-13. No inspected record establishes a relationship to Fairshake or its affiliates.
No stated position was inspected for this committee in this package.
No source citation on file for this stated position.
Our analysis, not theirs
Nothing inspected here links Commonwealth Unity Fund to Fairshake, Coinbase, or Ripple. Its FEC filing names no affiliated committee. It appears on this page because it is the committee whose itemized filings actually carry the Deaton support spending, not because it has been shown to be part of the crypto operation. Treating it as one would be exactly the error that produced the withdrawn figure above.
What the money is saying
Chains that connect a specific funder to a specific recipient to a specific message are in the relationship record above, where each link has its own receipt. The notes below do not make that connection and are not presented as though they do.
Funder-level strategy (1)
These describe how a funder talks overall. None is evidence that any individual politician authored, received, or was the subject of the message.
Fairshake's 2024 ads deliberately avoided mentioning cryptocurrency. Across Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, and Minnesota, ads focused on whatever polled best locally: immigration, inflation, China, energy prices, and healthcare. CNBC reported the $245M operation 'filled airwaves with ads not about crypto.' [source]
Context, not attributed to any funder (1)
The tri-PAC structure (Protect Progress for Democratic primaries, Defend American Jobs for Republican primaries) lets a single pool of crypto money target anti-crypto incumbents in both parties without being identified as partisan. Public Citizen characterized it as 'cryptobros united' behind a bipartisan wrapper. [source]
Read the framing carefully
The bipartisan shell structure is the central story. Two separately named affiliates ('Defend American Jobs' for Republicans, 'Protect Progress' for Democrats) let Fairshake neutralize anti-crypto incumbents in either party's primaries without appearing ideologically aligned. The names are marketing, not mission descriptions. Running ads about immigration and grocery prices (funded by Coinbase and Ripple) is a form of laundered influence: voters saw the ads without knowing who paid for them or why. One caveat: the 33-of-35 primary win rate is real but isn't proof of pure causal power. Several targeted incumbents were already polling behind. The 2026 $193M figure is partly FEC-confirmed ($125.8M in Fairshake alone) and partly January 2026 reporting aggregating all three entities.
A second caveat about our own work. The withdrawn Deaton figure is a worked example of the failure this page exists to avoid: a plausible number, attached to the committee the narrative wanted, that no filing supports. The temptation on finding Commonwealth Unity Fund's real $1.7M was to quietly relabel it as Defend American Jobs money and keep the shape of the story. That would have been a fabrication. Similar names, a shared race and a common industry are not evidence of a shared entity, and the only thing an empty query proves is that the query was empty.
Receipts
- Federal Election Commission: FEC: Fairshake committee financial summary (C00835959)
- Federal Election Commission: FEC: Defend American Jobs financial summary (C00836221)
- Federal Election Commission: FEC: Protect Progress financial summary (C00848440)
- CoinDesk: Crypto PACs Dominate Ohio Senate Race, Spending $40M on Sherrod Brown's Foe
- Axios: Crypto PAC Fairshake has already raised $193 million for 2026
- Public Citizen: Cryptobros United: Crypto Super PACs Amass Over $100 Million for 2024 Elections
- Federal Election Commission: FEC Schedule E: Protect Progress 2024 Arizona processed expenditures — five records supporting S4AZ00139 total $10,039,655.00
- Federal Election Commission: FEC original filing 1817955 (.fec, format 8.4) — two of the five Gallego transactions, matching the processed records
- Federal Election Commission: FEC original filing 1833211 (.fec, format 8.4) — the remaining three Gallego transactions, matching the processed records
- Federal Election Commission: FEC Schedule E: Defend American Jobs 2024 Massachusetts processed expenditures — zero records returned, the basis for withdrawing the $4.2M claim
- Federal Election Commission: FEC Schedule E: Commonwealth Unity Fund 2024 expenditures supporting S4MA00358 — 17 records total $1,703,292.79
- Federal Election Commission: FEC registration: COMMONWEALTH UNITY FUND (C00875856) — type O, no affiliated committee named, first filed 2024-04-11