Crypto super PACs spend $176m on midterms as Democrats take Congress

Key points

• Crypto super PACs spent about $176m across 100 seats, up from more than $130m in 2024, with Fairshake and affiliates accounting for $155m across 89 races.
• Crypto PACs put more than $64m into Ohio, but Sherrod Brown beat Republican Jon Husted for the seat.
• Fairshake has more than $67m left for the 2028 elections, its spokesperson Geoff Vetter told Cointelegraph.

Crypto super PACs spent about $176m on the 2026 midterms, but the Democratic sweep of Congress raises the prospect of tougher scrutiny for the industry, Cointelegraph reports. Fairshake and its affiliated PACs accounted for $155m of that across 89 races, up from more than $130m in 2024, according to Reuters figures cited by the outlet.

The industry's biggest loss came in Ohio, where crypto PACs put more than $64m into keeping Senator Jon Husted in office. Former Senator Sherrod Brown won the special election to complete former Senator JD Vance's term, which ends in January 2029. Two years earlier, Fairshake spent $40m to help Bernie Moreno unseat Brown in the state's other Senate seat.

Kyle Bligen of the Decentralization Research Center told Cointelegraph that the next Congress would bring a fundamentally different environment in Washington and significantly more scrutiny.

Not all the spending delivered. About $10m against Juliana Stratton failed to block her Illinois primary win, and Bryan Steil lost his House seat despite $1.9m in crypto PAC funding. Fairshake still has more than $67m for 2028, and spokesperson Geoff Vetter said the PAC would be watching. BitGo's Mike Belshe said the results would not change the industry's trajectory.

What to watch: Fairshake heads into the 2028 elections with more than $67m, and its spokesperson said the PAC will be watching the new Congress.

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