Networks

A coordinated network of crypto-funded super PACs working to shape cryptocurrency and blockchain policy, and among the best-funded political operations of the cycle. FairShake is the lead committee, distributing funds to the conservative-focused Defend American Jobs and the progressive-focused Protect Progress. All three draw on the same core donor base — chiefly Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz. The party-split structure lets the network back candidates in both parties’ primaries while casting itself as nonpartisan, though its spending has leaned toward Republicans. It concentrates on independent expenditures, funding ads to boost crypto-friendly candidates and oppose those seen as hostile to the industry — ads that typically make no mention of cryptocurrency. An affiliated dark money group, the Cedar Innovation Foundation, is not required to disclose its donors.

A pro-bitcoin advocacy and lobbying network built around the Bitcoin Policy Institute think tank and two affiliated 501(c)(4)s, the Blockchain Innovation Project and BPI Action. Fronted by former Representatives Tim Ryan (D-OH) and David McIntosh (R-IN), it casts its agenda as a defense of the industry against political forces it says want to “destroy” it.