Molly White: Cryptocurrency companies have raised over $115 million to influence US elections this cycle, and they’re just getting started. We need to closely watch how cryptocurrency companies are influencing US politics. www.citationneeded.news/2024-cryptoc...

Cryptocurrency companies have raised over $115 million to influence US elections this cycle, and they’re just getting started. We need to closely watch how cryptocurrency companies are influencing US politics. www.citationneeded.news/2024-cryptoc...

Cryptocurrency companies have raised over $115 million to influence US elections this cycle, and they’re just getting startedwww.citationneeded.news As election season kicks into high gear, we need to watch how cryptocurrency companies are influencing US politics.

Fairshake, a crypto-focused super PAC, is #3 on the list of super PACs by the amount of money raised. Coinbase and Ripple are both in the top ten companies by amounts donated to outside spending groups. This is far out of proportion when you look at the size of the industry.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency companies like Coinbase have been aggressively recruiting their customers to donate and vote along pro-crypto lines, with in-app calls-to-action and flashy websites that rate politicians based on their perceived pro- or anti-crypto stances.

It’s far past time time to shine a light on this coordinated and incredibly well funded effort to buy US elections. I’m working on a project to do just that, and will be releasing it shortly.

Unlike the companies creating these pro-crypto advocacy sites, I am just one person, and I haven’t got billions of dollars, but I’m going to do my very best. If you haven’t already, now would be a great time to support my work. www.citationneeded.news/pay-what-you...

Pay what you wantwww.citationneeded.news All content is free and available to all readers, and will continue to be that way. Paywalls suck and you won’t find them here. What you receive will be exactly the same regardless of whether you choo...

Can't wait, let molly cook, the queen don't miss

have you seen any noticeable shift in general public opinion from the lobbying, or does it seem like mostly the existing active crypto traders are the ones swayed?

i haven’t observed much in terms of public opinion, but i am worried that the politicians are buying the industry’s story that there is a big single-issue crypto base they need to appeal to.

Ding ding ding. We have a winner.

yeah, inot great how much wealthy people can manufacture a distorted reality to suit their needs

Anyone knows an alternative to coinbase to park some bitcoin? I got some before the craziness and it’s just been sitting in my coinbase account. I hate this company but I don’t want to sell my coin. I got it for nothing and just going to let it ride. Maybe I should just move it to my own wallet?

1/ Before you move your BTC off of Coinbase, please understand the difference between a hot wallet on your phone and a cold wallet device for long-term storage. A seed phrase will be involved. If you lose your seed phrase you permanently lose access to your BTC. …

2/ Do NOT store your seed phrase on your phone or online! Do NOT take a screenshot of your seed phrase! It should be written down and stored safely so it can’t get stolen, burned, wet or destroyed.

3/ Do NOT store your seed phrase in a file on a computer or in a password manager or iCloud or Google Drive or Dropbox, or any other online file storage.

How many people could possibly place their vote based on this issue?

A couple thousand. But they're wealthy and loud!

How do these compare to 2020? I feel like the crypto vibes died down, but I'm also not on Twitter anymore.

SUBSTANTIALLY more. in 2020, crypto industry donations to all congressional candidates was around $215k. this cycle they spent $10 million against Katie Porter alone, and have raised 500x that.

(500x the $215k that is, they haven’t raised $5 billion... yet)

against Katie Porter? this is why we can't have nice things

A majority of the industry hype/noise is on Twitter. And most here so far are anti-crypto and so if you focus only only one place you might think crypto is dead 🙃.

I'm not seeing big celebrity crypto ads on TV, either.

Well frankly all the people who were running ads were frauds, ironically LOL. At this point, the only 2 companies really in position to advertise are Kraken and Coinbase.

Are they hiring Matt Damon to do more ads

I need a Encanto style version of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” but it’s “We Don’t Talk About Crypto” no no no

The fraud industry, you mean

I'm interested in how much of this was just devoted to killing the recent bill that made it so The Fed can't mint its own CBDC

I know of a few crypto projects that seem more benign, i.e. NANO, but my feeling is many crypto enthusiasts lean heavily on the turbo-libertarian techtopian side... we shall see

And how much energy they are wasting

So the companies making fake money are raising real money to buy politicians. The future is dark indeed.

TBH, my initial reaction is "$115M is not actually that significant amount, given the ludicrous amounts of money involved in electoral politics these days." I mean, it's not nothing, esp if it all went in one direction. But I suspect it will be well spread, and hence, not much of a factor.

see the next tweet in the thread for a sense of scale

I actually did look at that before posting my comment. But I still felt the same as my initial reaction: it's a lot of $, but if it's spread out, esp across the aisle, seems like it won't be a big deal. Of course, if it turns out all of it is going one way, then yes, that's a much different story.

it is all going one way in the sense that it’s all going to support “pro-crypto” candidates. as far as party lines, it’s been roughly 80/20 thus far -- something i’ll track more accurately on the site i’m working on.

Okay, I'll agree that 80/20 is significant enough to be worrisome. I presume it's in favor of the GOP?

correct

Keep an eye on the ones pretending to have AI too

My uneducated opinion is that crypto supporters would be more likely to support RFK Jr than Trump if given the choice.

crypto currency is just a ponzi scam no one backs any of it it is backed by nothing except how much you invest when you stop it crashes like a game of duck duck goose will you lose of course

Wow! They finally found a practical use for crypto! Political corruption has a bright new future.

“Made up”. They literally printed their own currency on the backs of killing the Earth, conning the country, and bribing law makers. Largest Ponzi scheme in history.

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