Nearly half of election donations come from crypto companies

According to a report by Public Citizen, nearly half of the party donations this year in the U.S. came from the crypto industry. Of the $248 million in election donations, $119 million, or 48 percent, came from large crypto companies such as Ripple or Coinbase.

Rick Claypool, the report's author, called the crypto industry's political spending "unprecedented." In the last three election cycles, crypto companies have contributed a total of 15 percent of all known corporate donations.

The largest recipient of crypto donations is Fairshake PAC, a Super-PAC that raised $202.9 million. More than half of Fairshake's funding came directly from corporations. Super-PACs are special lobbying groups in the US created after a US federal court ruling in July 2010. They can raise unlimited amounts of money and are allowed to use it openly for or against political candidates.

Fairshake describes himself as a supporter of politicians "making sure the U.S. is home to innovators who are building the next generation of the Internet."

Also, the Winklevoss twins, founders of the crypto exchange Gemini, have already donated $2.45 million each to Fairshake. The main goal of the crypto-friendly Super-PAC: to prevent over-regulation of the crypto industry.

According to the report, only the oil industry has donated more money to both parties since 2010, totaling $162 million over the past 14 years.

On the decentralized crypto betting platform Polymarket, Republican candidate Donald Trump is currently slightly ahead with a 53 percent chance of winning.