Crypto spending on 2024 election hits $190 million, led by Winklevoss twins
Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss (L-R), creators of crypto exchange Gemini Trust Co., on stage at the Bitcoin 2021 Convention, a cryptocurrency conference held at the Mana Convention Center in Wynwood in Miami, Florida, on June 4, 2021.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are the biggest individual crypto donors this election cycle, giving a combined $10.1 million, or slightly over $5 million each, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by crypto market and blockchain analyst James Delmore and independently verified by CNBC.
With 50 days to go until the November general election, political donations from, or in support of, the crypto industry are up to around $190 million, as some of the biggest names in the sector open their digital wallets to help elect candidates sympathetic to their interests.
The Winklevoss twins gave around $1.7 million combined in bitcoin to the Trump 47 Committee, which raises money for Republican former President Donald Trump, over $700,000 combined to the pro-Trump Make America Great Again PAC, $250,000 each to the pro-Trump America PAC, and $4.9 million to the bipartisan pro-crypto Fairshake PAC.
Top executives from blockchain giant Ripple Labs have collectively given more than $3 million to candidate committees and super PACs so far this cycle, with co-founder Chris Larsen donating nearly $2.4 million of that, mostly to help Democratic candidates. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has donated more than $384,000 to multiple PACs and candidates, including to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and John Deaton, a Republican running against Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts. The company’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, gave $300,000 to the Trump 47 Committee.
At a fundraiser for Trump in June, Alderoty explained how Ripple had spent over $100 million litigation to defend itself against civil charges brought by the SEC. The event was held at the San Francisco mansion of venture capitalist David Sacks.
The Winklevoss twins, Coinbase and Ripple didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The month after the San Francisco fundraiser, Trump promised to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler if he were elected, even though U.S. presidents do not have the authority to fire members of independent commissions without cause. While the incoming president could unseat Gensler from his position as chairman, he would remain on as a commissioner until the end of his term.
Under Gensler, the SEC has taken on major industry players, including centralized cryptocurrency exchanges Kraken and Coinbase.
Executives from the two companies have been spending big this cycle. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has given over $1.3 million to a mix of PACs including Fairshake and JD Vance for Senate Inc., as well as directly to Democrats and Republicans running for both House and the Senate seats. Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal has attended at least two Trump fundraisers, including one in Nashville on the sidelines of the biggest bitcoin event of the year.
Kraken co-founder and Chairman Jesse Powell has donated just over $1 million to the Trump campaign.
Individual crypto contributors include ex-Bitfinex strategy chief Phil Potter (over $1.6 million), Multicoin Capital’s Kyle Samani ($878,600), Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam ($735,400), Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson ($1,4 million), Paxos CEO and co-founder Charles Cascarilla ($198,500), BitGo CEO Mike Belshe ($119,825), Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakavenko ($67,100), and Gibraltar-based Xapo Bank founder Wences Casares ($374,899).
According to Delmore’s report, no known donations have been made in cryptocurrency to the Future Forward PAC, which is raising funds for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president. Future Forward began accepting crypto donations this month through a partnership with Coinbase Commerce. It appears the donation page on the website still doesn’t offer a crypto option.
CNBC reached out to two representatives from Future Forward listed on the PAC’s FEC filing to ask about the tally of crypto donations thus far and when it plans to add a crypto payment option on its website. They didn’t immediately respond.
Harris’ fundraising operation has taken off since President Biden dropped out of the race, with her campaign raising $47 million in the first 24 hours after her first, and perhaps only, debate against Trump on Tuesday.
Huge jump from 2020
Delmore, who has been assembling reports on crypto donations in the 2024 election for blockchain analytics platform Breadcrumbs, told CNBC that industry spending is nearly double where it was in the mid-terms — more than $190 million in the 2024 election versus $98 million in the 2022 election. It’s nearly 13 times spending in 2020 of $15 million — a figure based on a mix of data from FEC and OpenSecrets filings.
Unlike the past two election cycles, which featured spending from the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and founder Sam Bankman-Fried, this year’s contributor list is more robust and diverse. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March for stealing $8 billion worth of customer money through FTX.
“Most of the crypto donations in 2022 were from FTX and SBF and almost all of them went to Democrats or PACs that support Democrats,” Delmore said.
Delmore said that spending is more balanced between the two parties, but “more has definitely gone to Republican candidates and PACs that supported Republicans and opposed Democrats.”
A Public Citizen report last month found that nearly half of all the corporate money flowing into this year’s election has come from the crypto industry, with Coinbase and Ripple leading the pack.
There is a lot of overlap between crypto’s biggest corporate and individual spenders.
The majority of funds for Fairshake, one of the top-spending PACs this year, can be traced to four sources: Coinbase, Ripple, Jump Crypto and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Widening the category to all of crypto, Delmore’s research finds that billions of dollars are at play, including more than $20 million in sales generated by non-fungible tokens (NFT) released by Trump, according to Bloomberg reporting, Trump-branded meme tokens, the $190 million in political donations from or in support of crypto, and another $1.1 billion on betting on the platform Polymarket.
So far, $922 million in bets have been placed on who will be the winner of the election, and another $206 million on who will win the popular vote.
Electing pro-crypto candidates ultimately comes down to turning out the vote.
The Stand With Crypto Alliance, launched by Coinbase last year, is in the midst of a cross-country bus tour through battleground states to get people registered to vote. The campaign culminates in an event on DC on Wednesday that will include speeches by members of Coinbase’s C-suite, as well as a live performance by music duo The Chainsmokers.
Wind energy powered 20% of all electricity consumed in Europe (19% in the EU) in 2024, and the EU has set a goal to grow this share to 34% by 2030 and more than 50% by 2050.
To stay on track, the EU needs to install 30 GW of new wind farms annually, but it only managed 13 GW in 2024 – 11.4 GW onshore and 1.4 GW offshore. This is what’s holding the EU back from achieving its wind growth goals.
Three big problems holding Europe’s wind power back
Europe’s wind power growth is stalling for three key reasons:
Permitting delays. Many governments haven’t implemented the EU’s new permitting rules, making it harder for projects to move forward.
Grid connection bottlenecks. Over 500 GW(!) of potential wind capacity is stuck in grid connection queues.
Slow electrification. Europe’s economy isn’t electrifying fast enough to drive demand for more renewable energy.
Brussels-based trade association WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson summed it up: “The EU must urgently tackle all three problems. More wind means cheaper power, which means increased competitiveness.”
Permitting: Germany sets the standard
Permitting remains a massive roadblock, despite new EU rules aimed at streamlining the process. In fact, the situation worsened in 2024 in many countries. The bright spot? Germany. By embracing the EU’s permitting rules — with measures like binding deadlines and treating wind energy as a public interest priority — Germany approved a record 15 GW of new onshore wind in 2024. That’s seven times more than five years ago.
If other governments follow Germany’s lead, Europe could unlock the full potential of wind energy and bolster energy security.
Grid connections: a growing crisis
Access to the electricity grid is now the biggest obstacle to deploying wind energy. And it’s not just about long queues — Europe’s grid infrastructure isn’t expanding fast enough to keep up with demand. A glaring example is Germany’s 900-megawatt (MW) Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm. The turbines are ready to go, but the grid connection won’t be in place until 2026.
This issue isn’t isolated. Governments need to accelerate grid expansion if they’re serious about meeting renewable energy targets.
Electrification: falling behind
Wind energy’s growth is also tied to how quickly Europe electrifies its economy. Right now, electricity accounts for just 23% of the EU’s total energy consumption. That needs to jump to 61% by 2050 to align with climate goals. However, electrification efforts in key sectors like transportation, heating, and industry are moving too slowly.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has tasked Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen with crafting an Electrification Action Plan. That can’t come soon enough.
More wind farms awarded, but challenges persist
On a positive note, governments across Europe awarded a record 37 GW of new wind capacity (29 GW in the EU) in 2024. But without faster permitting, better grid connections, and increased electrification, these awards won’t translate into the clean energy-producing wind farms Europe desperately needs.
Investments and corporate interest
Investments in wind energy totaled €31 billion in 2024, financing 19 GW of new capacity. While onshore wind investments remained strong at €24 billion, offshore wind funding saw a dip. Final investment decisions for offshore projects remain challenging due to slow permitting and grid delays.
Corporate consumers continue to show strong interest in wind energy. Half of all electricity contracted under Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) in 2024 was wind. Dedicated wind PPAs were 4 GW out of a total of 12 GW of renewable PPAs.
Read more: Renewables could meet almost half of global electricity demand by 2030 – IEA
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In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss the official unveiling of the new Tesla Model Y, Mazda 6e, Aptera solar car production-intent, and more.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
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The Chinese EV leader is launching a new flagship electric sedan. BYD’s new Han L EV leaked in China on Friday, revealing a potential Tesla Model S Plaid challenger.
What we know about the BYD Han L EV so far
We knew it was coming soon after BYD teased the Han L on social media a few days ago. Now, we are learning more about what to expect.
BYD’s new electric sedan appeared in China’s latest Ministry of Industry and Information Tech (MIIT) filing, a catalog of new vehicles that will soon be sold.
The filing revealed four versions, including two EV and two PHEV models. The Han L EV will be available in single- and dual-motor configurations. With a peak power of 580 kW (777 hp), the single-motor model packs more power than expected.
BYD’s dual-motor Han L gains an additional 230 kW (308 hp) front-mounted motor. As CnEVPost pointed out, the vehicle’s back has a “2.7S” badge, which suggests a 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) sprint time of just 2.7 seconds.
To put that into perspective, the Tesla Model S Plaid can accelerate from 0 to 100 km in 2.1 seconds. In China, the Model S Plaid starts at RBM 814,900, or over $110,000. Speaking of Tesla, the EV leader just unveiled its highly anticipated Model Y “Juniper” refresh in China on Thursday. It starts at RMB 263,500 ($36,000).
BYD already sells the Han EV in China, starting at around RMB 200,000. However, the single front motor, with a peak power of 180 kW, is much less potent than the “L” model. The Han EV can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.9 seconds.
At 5,050 mm long, 1,960 mm wide, and 1,505 mm tall with a wheelbase of 2,970 mm, BYD’s new Han L is roughly the size of the Model Y (4,970 mm long, 1,964 mm wide, 1,445 mm tall, wheelbase of 2,960 mm).
Other than that it will use a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) pack from BYD’s FinDreams unit, no other battery specs were revealed. Check back soon for the full rundown.
Source: CnEVPost, China MIIT
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