Crypto Comes For Sherrod Brown:
$32 Million in Ads Boosting His Opponent
Crypto companies are spending $800,000 a day to take out one of their chief critics in Congress — and replace him with an ally
Late 2023 was not a great time for the crypto industry.
In November, #Sam #Bankman-#Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, learned that no amount of Michael Lewis gymnastics could save him from being convicted on seven charges of fraud and conspiracy.
He was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison after disappearing $11 billion of other people’s money.
The following month, Sen. #Elizabeth #Warren sent letters to three crypto industry giants, the 🔸Blockchain Association, 🔸Coin Center, and 🔸Coinbase, criticizing them for undermining efforts to rein in crypto’s use in #terrorist #financing.
Around the same time, crypto groups began making noises about ♦️spending money in 2024 to defeat Ohio Sen. #Sherrod #Brown, the current ⭐️chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
❇️ Brown is a profound skeptic of the industry and signed off on Warren holding hearings on crypto’s possible links to terrorism.
Asked about the threats, Brown, a mop-topped Democrat with a raspy voice and wry sense of humor, said he was unconcerned.
But Brown had no idea of what was to come.
Rolling Stone has learned that crypto interests are set to spend💥 $32 million on TV ads promoting #Bernie #Moreno, Brown’s Republican opponent, by the end of September, according to Democratic media buyers.
The spending began on August 22
— meaning 🔥the crypto interests are spending more than $800,000 per day to flip the Ohio Senate seat, and potentially control of the Senate.
“Outside groups are spending record amounts to try to defeat Sherrod because they know he will always fight for Ohio, not special interests,” said Reeves Oyster, a Brown campaign spokesperson.
So far, the ads have been primarily fluffy positive spots boosting Moreno; some of the spots fearmonger about immigrants and China.
Tracing the roots of "Defend American Jobs" can be as convoluted as tracing crypto currency itself.
The group is effectively a subsidiary of #Fairshake
— the second-largest fundraiser among Super PACs this season according to OpenSecrets,
with over $200 million in its coffers.
♦️The bulk of Fairshake’s money has been donated by three crypto monoliths: Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple.
#Coinbase and its affiliates have donated $86 million.
The founders of the venture capital firm #Andreessen #Horowitz have together given $44 million.
#Ripple has contributed $25 million. (The #Winklevoss #Twins, who donated nearly $5 million to Fairshake, previously tried to donate $1 million in bitcoin to Donald Trump
— well beyond what is legal.)
Coinbase’s CEO #Brian #Armstrong has led the latest charge to bring crypto into the political mainstream,
hosting a Super Tuesday rally with Nas in Los Angeles where he proclaimed,
“More Americans own crypto than own electric vehicles or are in a union
— yet some people in D.C. are still underestimating how much and how many people care about crypto.
In 2024, it will become clear that being anti-crypto is bad politics.”
Rep. #Katie #Porter found that out the hard way.
During the California Democratic Senate primary, ⚠️Fairshake spent over $10 million against her campaign, apparently because she had the temerity to question the energy uses of the industry.
Porter didn’t make the runoff, losing to Adam Schiff, a longtime collaborator with crypto who received an ‘A’ rating from "Stand With Crypto", a self-described grassroots advocacy hub nonprofit led by Coinbase and fronted by Armstrong.
Porter got an ‘F.’
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/sherrod-brown-crypto-bernie-moreno-millions-1235102478/
