Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz are funding heavyweights in the 2024 elections.
The three companies and their staffs have donated about $136 million to Fairshake, a pro-crypto super PAC, according to an analysis from DL News.
Thatâs about 84% of almost $162 million in contributions sent through June to the PAC, a political action committee that can raise unlimited funds to spend indirectly on political campaigns.
Buried beneath the tens of millions from crypto billionaires are a spattering of donations from the crypto proletariat.
We all know who the biggest donors are, so who are the randos?
Named donors
The Federal Election Commission requires committees to disclose the names of contributors who donated $200 or more, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks the flow of money in American politics.
For Fairshake, thereâs only about $3,600 in unitemized individual contributions, or donations less than $200, to which the PAC doesnât have to attribute names.
There are only 44 named donors, and only nine donated less than $1,000, according to an analysis by DL News.
The smaller fish include a real estate broker outside New York City, a software developer in Oklahoma, and a marketer in North Carolina.
When DL News called Ryan Wilday, who lives near Seattle, he was surprised that he was one of the few listed in the FECâs donor database for the super PAC.
âThe Winklevosses didnât call me up and have me over for coffee or anything like that,â he said, referencing the billionaire twins who co-founded Gemini, a crypto exchange and custodian, and donated $5 million to Fairshake.
Wilday describes himself as a ârecovering industrial designer.â He now trades crypto and regular stocks, options, and futures for a living.
He also writes for a newsletter and provides analysis for Seeking Alpha, a financial news site.
âObviously, Iâm very pro crypto,â he said. âI am saddened by the position of politicians that are against crypto, and I will do anything to stop this.â
He donated $500 to Fairshake in December.
When asked how he felt rubbing shoulders on a list with some of cryptoâs most high-powered executives, he was humble.
âI didnât come from big money, and I donât roll with big money,â he said. âI just care about the space.â
Making waves
Branon Thames, who lives in Tampa, similarly didnât donate big money.
Heâs the executive partner at Thames & Associates, which represents different manufacturers in the water utility business, like companies that make pipes or those that produce âpost hydrants and flushing devices.â
Thames is a Bitcoin maxi, and heâs frustrated that President Joe Bidenâs administration has proposed a tax on Bitcoin miners.
âI just want sensible, logical, calm, regulation that has a period of comment,â he told DL News.
Most of the donors to Fairshake, like Coinbase or Ripple, deal with âshitcoins,â a pejorative Bitcoiners use to describe other cryptocurrencies.
Thames recognises that joining up with âshitcoinersâ puts him in bed with non-believers. âIt is a weird dynamic,â he said.
Still, in June, he donated $500 to Fairshake, partly, he said, because it was one of the few ways he can politically promote the cause of Bitcoin at the federal level.
âThis was the first year that Iâve ever donated to any political candidate or any kind of group for politics,â he said, adding later: âIâm not making any waves by any means. It just feels good to be able to at least try to take a stand.â
And heâs right about not making waves. According to an analysis from DL News, only about 2% of all donations through June to Fairshake were less than $1 million.
Ben Weiss is a Dubai Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at bweiss@dlnews.com.