A political action committee (PAC) supporting former United States President Donald Trump has raised $7.5 million in cryptocurrency to support his presidential election campaign.
The Trump 47 PAC raised millions in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP) and stablecoins Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) between July and September, according to an Oct. 15 filing with the Federal Election Commission.
Over the past three months, major donors include crypto industry leaders and executives, with 18 donors accounting for more than $5.5 million in BTC and seven for about $1.5 million in ETH.
Notable contributions came from BTC media group CEO David Bailey, who gave $498,000, Ripple legal chief Stuart Alderoty, who donated $300,000 in XRP, and crypto exchange Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who each gave $1.1 million.
Chase Herro, one of the co-founders of the Trump family’s new crypto project, World Liberty Financial, also donated, as did Mike Belshe, the CEO of crypto custodian BitGo, who contributed almost $100,000 in BTC.
Other donors include Gary Cardone of Cardone Digital Ventures, who contributed over $840,000 in Bitcoin, Chainstone Labs CEO Bruce Fenton, and Kresus Labs founder Trevor Traina.
Summary of Trump 47 PAC finances for the third quarter of 2024. Source: FEC
Trump 47 isn’t the only PAC attracting attention from the crypto industry. Bloomberg reported on Oct. 16 that the founders of crypto venture firm a16z, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, each donated $2.5 million to the pro-Trump super PAC Right For America.
Right For America has raised $38.6 million so far this election cycle, according to Open Secrets.
Meanwhile, some crypto leaders have backed Trump’s rival Kamala Harris, including Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, who donated $1 million in XRP to the pro-Harris PAC Future Forward.
Ripple was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020, with the legal battle dragging on for the past four years.
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According to an August report from the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen, almost half of the corporate money flowing into election campaigns has come from the crypto industry.
The report said the crypto industry has contributed about 13 times more this election cycle than in the last presidential election.
According to Open Secrets, one of the biggest super PACs, the crypto sector’s Fairshake, has raised more than $200 million this election cycle.
According to a September filing, Fairshake has spent almost $7 million on media buys and production to support candidates and more than $2 million opposing incumbent Democrats.
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