Senator Elizabeth Warren has slammed crypto bigwigs backing Republican challenger John Deaton as her Massachusetts Senate race heats up.
Warren, the incumbent US senator, accused industry chieftains including the Winklevoss twins, of sponsoring attack ads to spread misinformation about her candidacy.
Warren chided their efforts and likened them to other special interest groups trying to influence the outcome of US elections.
“Some of the funders behind those ads are crypto investors like the Winklevoss brothers ― Yes those guys from The Social Network ― because they’re upset that I’ve called for fair regulations around the industry that protect working people,” Warren’s campaign wrote in a letter to donors.
“The Social Network” that Warren referenced is a 2010 film that chronicled the early days of Facebook, now Meta, that revolved around the Winklevoss’ lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing the idea behind the website.
In July, Gemini exchange founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss donated $1 million to a super PAC supporting Deaton in his bid to unseat Warren.
Several crypto luminaries including Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse have endorsed Deaton to stop Warren’s anti-crypto crusade in the US Senate.
The latest estimates show that Deaton has raised $1.8 million as of September, a figure that was well short of Warren’s $7.2 million war chest, according to the US Federal Election Commission. Most of the Deaton donations are believed to be from crypto sources.
Warren sponsored a bill earlier this year to crack down on crypto-based money laundering activities.
Crypto proponents in the US opposed the bill which they alleged would drive “the majority of the digital asset industry overseas.”
The Democratic senator counters those criticisms, saying she wants crypto to play by the same rules as traditional finance ― a position that is also held by US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler
Meanwhile, Deaton has deep ties to the crypto industry. He defended Ripple during the crypto company’s highly publicised court battle with the SEC .
The SEC charged Ripple in 2020 with securities violations, including the sale of XRP cryptocurrency.
Ripple secured a partial victory last year when the court ruled that XRP sold to retail investors did not constitute a sale of unregistered securities. Still, there are other charges levied against Ripple’s executives concerning the sale of XRP to institutional clients
Despite being buoyed by a wave of donations from crypto bigwigs, Deaton still faces a herculean task of unseating the two-term senator in the left-leaning state’s local politics.
A June poll put Warren with a 23-point lead over Deaton before he was confirmed as the Republican candidate.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. To share tips or information about stories, please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.
