The crypto industry aims to crush one of Democrats’ top Senate candidates

The cryptocurrency industry, furious at Democrats for blocking the passage of a major business-friendly bill last week, is beginning to wage war on the party’s midterm candidates.

The industry’s main super political action committee, Fairshake, which is backed by some of the richest people in Silicon Valley, is starting to unspool a planned $30 million advertising campaign against former Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat running again for the chamber, the group told The New York Times.

The push is by far the crypto industry’s most aggressive move yet in the midterms, and it could have significant implications for the Ohio Senate race, one of this year’s top contests for control of Congress. Fairshake spent $41 million on advertising in 2024 to target Brown, a progressive critic of the industry who was then the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. He lost, and many Republicans credit the crypto industry for helping them win.