How tech bros bought ‘America’s most pro-crypto Congress ever’
Bernie Moreno, Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Ohio, attends a campaign event in Holland, Ohio, on Saturday, October 26, 2024. Moreno is running against Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Prior to announcing his Senate candidacy in April 2023, Bernie Moreno was a political no name. A former car salesman in the Cleveland area, his only prior experience in politics was a losing bid for Ohio’s other Senate seat in 2022.
Moreno has since accomplished the once unthinkable.
On Nov. 5, as part of the election that swept Donald Trump back into the White House, Moreno defeated Democratic incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown, who was first elected to the House in 1992, before winning his Senate seat in 2006 and chairing the powerful Banking Committee since 2021.
Moreno’s rise from unsung Ohio businessman to prominent political leader was no accident. His campaign was backed by $40 million from the cryptocurrency industry as part of a highly targeted effort to get friendly candidates elected and, perhaps more importantly, its critics removed. Moreno’s victory was one of the Senate seats Republicans flipped to take control of the chamber.
In total, crypto-related PACs and other groups tied to the industry reeled in over $245 million, according to Federal Election Commission data. Crypto accounted for nearly half of all corporate dollars that flowed into the election, according to nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen. Advocacy group Stand With Crypto Alliance, which Coinbase launched last year, developed a grading system for House and Senate races across the country as a way to help determine where money should be spent.
Crypto execs, investors and evangelists saw the election as existential to an industry that spent the past four years simultaneously trying to grow up while being repeatedly beaten down. Nearly 300 pro-crypto lawmakers will take seats in the House and Senate, according to Stand With Crypto, giving the sector unprecedented influence over the legislative agenda.
The crypto political lobby worked so well this cycle because it made something complicated, like campaign finance, simple: Raise a ton of cash from a handful of donors and buy ad space in battleground states to either support candidates who back crypto or smear the candidates who don’t. It also required thinking of candidates as a bit of a binary: They were either with the industry or against it.
Crypto companies and their executives mobilized rapidly, and they successfully figured out how to deploy their cash through a sophisticated ad machine across the country. They also took cues from what big tech got wrong. Rather than spending hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying legislators post-election, the crypto industry invested in targeting their opponents ahead of the election so they wouldn’t have to deal with them at all the next few years.
For over a year, Moreno was grilled by Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and David Sacks about blockchain technology, digital asset policy and the shifting terrain of global finance.
“They didn’t just jump in head first,” Moreno said, describing the scores of meetings that stretched back to his run in the primary. “We had to build a lot of trust.”
Moreno also met with Coinbase co-founders Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam as well as policy chief Faryar Shirzad. Armstrong and Ehrsam did not respond to CNBC’s request, through Coinbase, for comment about the meetings.
Coinbase is the largest digital asset exchange in the U.S. and has been battling the Securities and Exchange Commission in court for over a year. The company was the crypto kingmaker in the 2024 cycle, giving more than $75 million to a super PAC called Fairshake. It was one of the top spending committees of any industry this cycle and exclusively gave to pro-crypto candidates running for Congress. Fairshake’s candidates won virtually every race that it funded in the general election.
“Being anti-crypto is simply bad politics,” Coinbase’s Armstrong wrote on X following Moreno’s victory.
As the price of bitcoin has multiplied by about sixfold in the past four years, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has taken major crypto players like Coinbase and Ripple to court for allegedly selling unregistered securities and has avoided working with companies to develop new specialized regulations.
Meanwhile, Sen. Brown sided with the expressly anti-crypto Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in targeting crypto for allegedly funding terrorist organizations, including Hamas. Brown became more vocal in calling for crackdowns of the industry after the failure of crypto exchange FTX in late 2022.
As FTX was spiraling into bankruptcy, Brown on Nov. 10 retweeted a post from the Senate Banking Committee calling the event “a loud warning bell that cryptocurrencies can fail” and can “have a ripple effect on consumers and other parts of our financial system.”
The bipartisan Fairshake won all but three races in the general election, spending big on Republicans and Democrats gunning for key seats. Protect Progress, a PAC affiliated with Fairshake, gave more than $10 million apiece to Democratic candidates for the Senate in Arizona and Michigan. Both won. Defend American Jobs, another one of Fairshake’s affiliated PACs, spent more than $3 million to support Republican Jim Justice in West Virginia, who will take the former seat of Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin when the new session gets underway in 2025.
In California, Democratic Rep. Katie Porter lost a Senate primary after Fairshake spent more than $10 million on ads against her.
“I was, like, ‘What the heck is Fairshake?'” Porter told The New Yorker.
How tech bros made their pick
Those vetting Moreno wanted to understand what he would do differently than the current administration and regulatory regime, the senator-elect told CNBC in an interview.
“These are people who know how to vet investments, know how to vet people and they took that same discipline” with me, Moreno said.
It helped that he’d built a blockchain startup, a company called Champ Titles that digitizes automobile ticketing and registration.
“What they didn’t want was to put time, effort and energy behind somebody who, at the end, would be a disappointment,” Moreno said.
A spokesperson for Andreessen and Horowitz, who are co-founders of a venture firm bearing their names, declined to comment. Sacks, founder of Craft Ventures, didn’t respond to CNBC’s request for an interview.
Coinbase’s Shirzad met Moreno over breakfast in Washington in the spring. Moreno wasn’t an expert on the details of the policy issues he’d be pursuing but had a clear understanding of crypto technology and how it could be applied, Shirzad told CNBC in an interview.
“It was a really great meeting of minds between me as a policy guy and him as kind of a business guy that saw the potential of the technology,” Shirzad said.
Moreno was out of cash after spending all he had on a tough and expensive primary, said David McIntosh, an early backer of Moreno’s Senate bid and president of the Club for Growth, a conservative organization that focuses on American economic issues. Fairshake played a crucial role for Moreno’s campaign starting in the summer, McIntosh said.
Moreno’s victory over Brown “sent a really strong signal to Washington that the voters are going to support candidates who are pro-blockchain,” McIntosh said.
McIntosh noted that the Club for Growth spent $6.5 million to help Moreno with advertising in the primary through its different super PACs, including the Bitcoin Freedom Fund.
Brown’s office didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
Brown told Politico he hasn’t ruled out running for Vice President-elect JD Vance’s open Senate seat in Ohio, which will be filled by special election in 2026.
Moreno benefited from branding himself as the “change” candidate while Brown “became a defender of the status quo,” Shirzad said.
“Crypto thematically is a change issue,” Shirzad said. “It appeals to not only a younger demographic, but it also appeals to voters who want to change.”
Fairshake declined to comment on whether it would spend to block another Brown Senate run, but the super PAC has already raised $78 million for the 2026 midterms.
“We stuck to our core strategy from Day 1, supported pro-crypto candidates and opposed those who played politics with jobs and innovation, and won,” Fairshake told CNBC in a statement.
‘Most pro-crypto Congress ever’
The past two election cycles featured spending from the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March for stealing more than $8 billion worth of customer money through FTX.
This year’s contributor list was more robust but saw large sums of funding come from companies that have been at odds with SEC Chair Gensler for years. That includes Coinbase and blockchain giant Ripple Labs. Prominent venture fund Andreessen Horowitz, which has a large portfolio of crypto companies, was one of the other primary contributors.
A lot of crypto’s big names also gave significantly in 2024.
FEC filings show Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss were among the largest individual crypto donors this election cycle, giving a combined $10.1 million. Top executives from Ripple contributed millions, led by billionaire founder Chris Larsen, who gave around $12 million this cycle.
Coinbase CEO Armstrong gave over $1.3 million to a mix of PACs including Fairshake and JD Vance for Senate Inc. He also gave directly to Democrats and Republicans running for House and Senate seats. Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal attended at least two Trump fundraisers, including one in Nashville, Tennessee, on the sidelines of the biggest bitcoin event of the year.
Kraken Chairman Jesse Powell donated over $1 million to the Trump campaign.
Other 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 Charles Cascarilla ($198,500), BitGo CEO Mike Belshe ($119,825), Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko ($67,100), and Xapo Bank founder Wences Casares ($374,899).
This week, Armstrong reportedly met with the president-elect to discuss appointments. Within a day, conversations swirled about the potential for the White House’s first crypto czar. By the end of the week, SEC Chair and longtime crypto foe Gensler, whose term doesn’t expire until June 2026, announced he was retiring on inauguration day.
One of Trump’s promises to his crypto fans on the campaign was that he would fire the SEC head and choose crypto-friendly regulators if elected. Gensler may have taken a look at the pressure that faces him across Washington and decided it just wasn’t worth trying to stick it out.
“Welcome to America’s most pro-crypto Congress ever,” Armstrong wrote on X on Nov. 5.
Toyota’s most affordable electric vehicle, which starts at around $15,000, is off to a hot start in China. With a new locally-built EV motor, Toyota is already cutting costs to keep pace in China’s fierce EV price war.
Toyota secures a new China-made EV motor to cut costs
After launching the bZ3X in March, Toyota’s joint venture, GAC Toyota, claimed the new electric SUV was “so popular that the server crashed.”
The electric SUV is selling faster than expected. In May, its second full month on the market, the bZ3X was the best-selling foreign brand EV in China, outselling the Volkswagen ID.3 and ID.4 Crozz, BMW i3, and Nissan’s new N7.
GAC-Toyota’s general manager of sales, Peng Baolin, announced the bZ3X retained the title in June with 6,030 units delivered.
Toyota has already sold around 20,000 models, a new record for joint venture electric SUVs. Thanks to a new, locally made EV motor, the Japanese automaker can offer the bZ3X at such low prices.
Japan’s Nidec built a “made-in-China” EV motor to help Toyota compete in China’s intense EV market. Nidec’s president, Mitsuya Kishida, said in an interview (via Bloomberg) that around 99% of the materials and parts are sourced from China.
According to Kishida, building the new electric motor was “incredibly tough,” but it’s already helping Toyota cut costs in China.
Nidec began supplying the new EV motor for the bZ3X in March, a key factor in the electric SUV’s starting price of roughly $15,000.
The bZ3X is available in seven different trims with prices ranging from 109,800 yuan ($15,000) to 159,800 yuan ($22,000). It’s offered with two battery packs, 50.03 kWh and 67.92 kWh, providing a CLTC driving range of 430 km (267 miles) and 610 km (379 miles), respectively.
Despite the low price, the interior is surprisingly luxurious and equipped with advanced technology, including a 12.3″ infotainment screen and an 8.8″ driver cluster screen.
Powered by Momenta’s end-to-end intelligent driving model, the electric SUV offers nearly 50 advanced safety features, including Level 2 assisted driving.
Toyota promotes it as a budget-friendly family SUV. With all seats folded down, the bZ3X has nearly 10 feet of space.
At 4,645 mm in length, 1,885 mm in width, and 1,625 mm in height, Toyota’s electric SUV is about the same size as the BYD Yuan Plus (sold as the Atto 3 overseas).
Electrek’s Take
Toyota is showing signs of a recovery in China with a series of new electric vehicles rolling out. Last month, the company launched another electric SUV, the bZ5.
The bZ5 is about the size of a Tesla Model Y, but it’s about half the cost in China, with prices starting at 129,800 yuan ($18,000).
During GAC-Toyota’s EV Tech Day in June, the company announced partnerships with “car industry bigwigs,” including Xiaomi, Huawei, and Momenta.
Through the first five months of 2025, Toyota’s sales in China are up 7.7% with over 530,000 vehicles sold. With several more EVs on the way, including the bZ7, the Japanese automaker aims to catch up.
Toyota also broke ground on a new Lexus EV plant in Shanghai last month, the second wholly owned auto plant in China from a foreign automaker, following Tesla. Kishida said Nidec could cooperate with Toyota on the project for supply.
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Tesla has announced the new ‘Model YL’, a larger 6-seater Model Y with a longer wheelbase, coming to China this fall.
We first heard about this new version of the Model Y through hacker Green last month.
Today, Tesla officially announced the new Model Y variant, called Model YL, on China’s Weibo, stating that it will be available this fall. The automaker also released these two images:
It looks like Tesla announced the new model today, despite not being available until this fall, because it was officially posted on China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) website for regulatory approval.
The filing gives us a little more detail.
Here’s a comparison table between the new Model Y released earlier this year and this new Model YL:
| Specification | Model Y | Model YL |
| L*W*H (mm) | 4797*1920*1624 | 4976*1920*1668 |
| Wheelbase (mm) | 2890 | 3040 |
| Front/Rear Overhang (mm) | 896/1011 | 896/1040 |
| Track Front/Rear (mm) | 1636/1636 | 1656/1624 |
| Top Speed (km/h) | 201 | 201 |
| Curb Weight (kg) | 1921 | 2088 |
| Tire Size | 255/45R19, 255/40R20 | 255/45R19, 275/45R19 |
| Energy Type | BEV | BEV |
| Motor | 220 kW | 142 kW / 198 kW |
| Battery Type | LFP | NCM |
| Battery Supplier | CATL | LGES Nanjing |
As you can see, the new Model YL is slightly longer, ~180mm or 7 inches longer, and 24mm or about an inch taller.
The wheelbase is also 150mm, or approximately 6 inches, longer.
Here are pictures of the new Model YL released through the MIIT filing:
Electrek’s Take
This appears to be in response to several new all-electric third-row SUVs launching in China in the last few months.
Most recently, the Onvo L90 has been launched at a very competitive price compared to the Model Y.
However, this is expected to be priced closer to the equivalent of $50,000 in China as it uses LG battery cells and it is bigger than the current Model Y. In comparison, the Onvo L90 starts at the equivalent of $39,000.
Tesla needs to go down market with the Model Y in China if it wants to stop the bleeding. Not up market.
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Buzz Bicycles has just launched its newest electric tricycle model, pushing prices even lower as older riders continue to gravitate towards electric three-wheelers as accessible e-bikes for both recreation and transportation. Now with the Buzz Cerana T2 hitting the road, the lower end of the market is heating up even faster. And Buzz may now have one of the best-priced mid-drive e-trikes in town.
There’s no shying away from the massive competition in the electric trike space. After Lectric eBikes launched the second generation of the US’ best-selling electric trike model last week, everyone now has a new target to beat. Priced at $1,499, the Lectric XP Trike2 sets a new standard for any retailer that wants to compete on price.
In the weeks since, we’ve seen other e-bike companies roll out their own next-generation models in an attempt to keep up with the driving force in the growing three-wheeler market. But the Buzz Cerana T2 is the first “second-gen” model I’ve seen since the XP Trike2 launch that has actually managed to undercut Lectric’s price. With a $1,399 sticker, the Buzz trike is a solid $100 cheaper.
So what does one Benjamin less get you? Let’s dive in and find out.
First of all, the Cerana T2 rolls on relatively large wheels, with a 24×3.0″ front tire and 20×3.0″ rear tires. The trike is also powered by a mid-drive motor mounted at the bottom bracket, offering 500W of power.
The product page claims a 20 mph top speed, though that’d be pretty fast for a trike and may be a copy/paste error from another product page, which I’m entertaining as a possibility because right next to it is a graphic touting the rear hub motor – which this trike clearly does not have.
What it does have though is torque, and a lot of it! The mid-drive motor is rated for 130 Nm of torque, which is pretty far up the chart and exceeds the torque output of the vast majority of e-bikes on the market today.
With a throttle on the handlebars, the Cerana T2 qualifies as a Class 2 electric bike, though the five different levels of pedal assist and the cadence sensor mean that riders can also still get a nice workout at varying levels of effort if they choose to ignore the enticing throttle.
Considering the battery is a 48V 10.4Ah unit with only 500 Wh of capacity, pedaling is going to be important if riders want to achieve the claimed 40 miles (64 km) of maximum range on a single charge. If using the throttle frequently, a range of closer to half of that figure is more likely.
And for those who like to keep an eye out for UL certifications, you’ll be happy to hear that Buzz reports full UL2849 certification for the bike.
Other features on the Cerana T2 include the fender set, LCD display, 7-speed shifter, mechanical disc brakes, LED lighting in the front and rear, and an included front rack with matching rear basket.
There’s also an oversized saddle that features a manual drop post. It’s a hand lever found under the saddle that can instantly drop the post down several inches – a great way to quickly lower the seat when coming to a stop to dismount. It’s always a great way to get people to raise an eyebrow the first time you fiddle around for it in a fairly… intimate location.
Electrek’s Take
On the one hand, it feels a bit unfair to compare the Buzz Cerana T2 to the Lectric XP Trike2 instead of discussing this new model in its own right. But on the other hand, it’s one of several second-gen trikes to recently hit the market in the wake of the Trike2’s groundshattering unveiling, so I’d be doing the journalistic version of closing my eyes, putting my hands over my ears and shouting “La la la la!” if I pretended the two unveilings weren’t at least somewhat related.
Of course everyone is looking to save a buck (or a hundred of them) where they can, and the Cerana T2 even offers some cool things the XP Trike2 doesn’t, such as that dropper seat post and the mid-drive motor – though I’m not sure if the cadence sensor is worth it, not to mention that the XP Trike2’s jackshaft motor is essentially a hub motor functioning as a mid-drive. And while the Cerana T2’s lack of suspension is disappointing, the 3″ tires will help earn back some of the cushion lost to a rigid fork and frame.
On the other hand, the Cerana T2 has a few downsides, such as the lower-end mechanical disc brakes and the lack of a folding frame.
But hey, if it can really do 20 mph on the straightaways, then that might be its biggest selling point right there – other than the $1,399 price. Just watch out for those turns…
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