Crypto Super PAC Dumps $63 Million on Ohio Senate Race to Block Sherrod Brown
Crypto‑focused super PACs are spending $63 million in Ohio, the second‑largest non‑presidential ad blitz this cycle, to keep Democrat Sher Sherrod Brown out of the Senate.
Tomorrow, Ohio will hold one of only three non‑presidential races ever to top $500 million in advertising, and it is the second‑largest this cycle after Texas.
Crypto‑focused super PACs have poured $63 million into the Ohio Senate contest, with the explicit goal of keeping Sherrod Brown out of the Senate.
The Fairshake super PAC network accounts for $56 million of that spend, while the remaining $7 million comes from the Winklevoss twins’ PAC, the Digital Freedom Fund.
Fairshake’s spokesperson says the group “always will be an issue‑focused organization. We back pro‑crypto candidates who support American innovation in both parties.”
Brown lost his seat in 2024 and has not cast a vote for or against crypto during the entire 119th Congress. Nevertheless, Fairshake announced its largest funding commitment to block Brown just days after Senate Democrats blocked the Clarity Act, a vote in which Brown took no part.
After Brown’s 2024 defeat, a Fairshake spokesman boasted, “Brown was a top opponent of cryptocurrency and thanks to our efforts, he will be leaving the Senate.” During the crypto industry’s early legislative push, Brown chaired the Senate Banking Committee and could have scheduled the House‑passed FIT21 bill for a committee vote, but he never did.
Brown’s record is fair game, but the question remains whether his 2024 inaction and two‑year absence from Congress justify the crypto super PAC’s biggest congressional spend in 2026.
If the industry’s political spend were truly based on legislative records, the targets would be obvious. After the 2024 election, crypto “luminaries” celebrated a pro‑crypto Congress, noting that Republicans have controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House for the last two years.
The expectation from the unprecedented spend was a Congress that would finally deliver a market‑structure bill and stop leaving the industry’s future to the whims of whoever chairs the SEC or CFTC.
As noted, the Clarity Act failed to overcome cloture. Republicans will say Clarity needed 60 votes and couldn’t pass without Democrats—a point that is true. Yet the controversial Laken Riley Act, the HALT Fentanyl Act, and the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act all overcame cloture and became law.
Different bills require different coalitions, but controlling the majority—and the calendar, agenda, and committee assignments—means taking responsibility for negotiating those coalitions.
A merit‑based operation would spend to replace Republicans who failed to deliver. Instead, the biggest check of the cycle goes to punish a Democrat who wasn’t even in the room.
When asked to explain discrepancies in its funding decisions, Fairshake has pointed to the “Stand with Crypto” scorecard.
Whether the scorecard fully explains the money flow remains an open question, but the Ohio spend underscores how the crypto industry is willing to pour massive sums into a single race to shape policy outcomes.
