Big Crypto is now spending more on US elections than any other industry
www.businessinsider.com
Crypto companies have already funneled some $119 million into federal elections, according to data from Public Citizen.

The crypto industry is making its mark on this year’s elections to the tune of some $119 million.

The funding has largely come from two companies — Coinbase and Ripple — which are funneling money into super PACs like Fairshake PAC, which is dedicated to “elevating pro-crypto candidates and attacking crypto skeptics,” according to Public Citizen.

At the 2024 bitcoin conference in Nashville in February, Trump — who called bitcoin “highly volatile and based on thin air” in 2019 — said he’d lay out a plan “to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world.” Trump has already won the backing of several crypto enthusiasts, including his running mate JD Vance, who owns at least $250,000 in bitcoin.

  • cybermass@lemmy.ca
    288·
    2 months ago

    It isn’t, it’s a technology. People use that technology to scam.

    Same as phone calls aren’t scans and email aren’t scans but people can use them to scam.

    Crypto has a purpose, just one that doesn’t apply to many people.

    • xep@fedia.io
      172·
      2 months ago

      We’ll find that use case any day now. The one that isn’t enabling crime, that is.

      • cybermass@lemmy.ca
        1·
        2 months ago

        Yeah that’s pretty much the only solid purpose crypto has as of now. But the technology itself is cool.

      • Allero
        35·
        2 months ago

        Define enabling crime.

        Is payment for private VPN enabling crime? Is sending money to and from relatives in sanctioned jurisdictions enabling crime? Is supporting opposition leaders enabling crime?

        • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
          61·
          2 months ago

          “Is sending money to and from relatives in sanctioned jurisdictions enabling crime?”

          Yes. Literally yes. What the fuck do you think a sanctioned jurisdiction is?

          • Allero
            13·
            2 months ago

            Well then I’ll be a criminal for caring about my close ones.

            • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
              5·
              2 months ago

              If you believe that it’s a moral good to break those laws, that’s fine. But that’s not the argument you were making.

              • Allero
                13·
                2 months ago

                Fair enough, I digressed.

                Though between our countries, no law prohibits me to send crypto to each other, so here it is not criminal activity. Operating such transactions in fiat is what falls under scrutiny.

        • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
          4·
          2 months ago

          A VPN has uses outside of criminal activities.

          Crypto gets perpetuated through them.

          • Allero
            14·
            2 months ago

            Most crypto is not associated with criminal activity.

      • ililiililiililiilili@lemm.ee
        14·
        2 months ago

        Crypto enables freedom, and yes, criminals are kinda into freedom. Imagine cash has never existed and try to pitch that. It would never make it past the board. You are correct that crypto may not help your average American. But its use as a safer haven are important in places like El Salvador, Nigeria, and Curacao.