Almost four months into the 2026 congressional primary season, the cryptocurrency industry's leading super PAC has racked up a winning percentage that could make the Harlem Globetrotters blush.
Fairshake, the deep-pocketed PAC group funded by leading crypto firms, has gone 38-2 across the first 40 congressional races it has spent on this year. Though many of those bets were placed in safe races, the spending has helped take down critics and pave the way for a new wave of industry-friendly lawmakers to come to Washington.
The group notched four more wins in Tuesday’s primaries, as Fairshake-backed candidates prevailed in races across Maryland, Utah and New York.
Most prominently, Maryland state Del. Adrian Boafo won a hotly contested Democratic primary to replace Rep. Steny Hoyer with the help of more than $5.5 million in spending from a Fairshake-affiliated PAC. The latest victories come one week after the PAC group’s biggest bet of the 2026 cycle so far — a more than $12 million spend on Rep. Barry Moore in the Alabama GOP Senate primary — helped propel the Trump-backed lawmaker to victory in the race to replace Sen. Tommy Tuberville.
The spending spree comes at a pivotal time for the crypto sector in Washington. The industry’s longtime top priority — a sweeping bill that would bless digital assets with a new sheen of regulatory legitimacy — is pending in the Senate, with Republicans hoping for a floor vote next month. The campaign money injects midterm politics into the debate over an issue that is otherwise reserved for financial policy wonks: It offers to help vulnerable lawmakers in both parties who support the effort — and threatens to punish those who don’t.
The victories in Alabama and Maryland represent two of crypto’s most audacious plays this year. But Fairshake’s overall record reflects a cautious approach of wading into many races where the candidate it supports is the favorite — and spending early and big when it does enter a competitive contest.
Notably, many of the primaries the group has played in so far are for seats considered safe in November.
“They’re playing in a lot of seats that, on the larger partisan scale, are safe seats,” said Andy LaVigne, director of politics and partnerships at the centrist Democratic group Third Way. “It makes them a little bit of a wild card player. Some of these races are just not ones that are going to attract a lot of other attention.”
The PAC group is comprised of three affiliated super PACs — Fairshake, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress — that back lawmakers in both parties who take a friendly approach to the crypto industry, and target those who want to crack down on the sector. The group entered the month with more than $135 million on hand — a titanic war chest that looms large over Capitol Hill as lawmakers debate an industry-backed crypto bill known as the Clarity Act. Most of Fairshake’s funding comes from the crypto companies Coinbase and Ripple and the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
“At this critical time for America’s global leadership, we’re proud of our results to help build a durable and growing crypto-knowledgeable caucus to deliver responsible regulation that protects consumers and innovators,” Fairshake spokesperson Geoff Vetter said in a statement.
The only blemishes on the crypto PAC’s record thus far came in Illinois, where it sought to take down a pair of Democrats who were seen as potential industry critics. Fairshake spent more than $10 million opposing Senate hopeful Juliana Stratton and more than $2 million against state Rep. La Shawn Ford, who both won their Democratic primaries.
Outside of the Prairie State, the PAC group’s record is perfect — including in some competitive contests it has played in. Its biggest wins include Boafo and Moore this month and Rep. Christian Menefee’s victory over Rep. Al Green in a Texas Democratic primary where a Fairshake PAC spent more than $6 million to boost Menefee and punish Green, a crypto critic who sits on the House Financial Services Committee.
Fairshake has credited itself as a decisive factor in some of those races. Vetter, the group’s spokesperson, said after last night’s Maryland win that Fairshake “did our part to move Adrian Boafo from fifth place to the halls of Congress,” adding: “We went big and we went early.” And he said following the Texas contest that Fairshake “was the difference-maker” in the race.
Some Democrats who oppose the crypto industry’s agenda on Capitol Hill are skeptical that crypto spending has been a decisive factor in some of the key races the PAC has spent in. Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.), a crypto critic on House Financial Services, said he is “not sure that their money really mattered” in his home state’s primaries.
“I think a lot of times, they’re looking for a win that they can claim as theirs,” Casten said. “It’s not always necessarily a win where they were dispositive.”
Notably, the group has stayed out of some primary contests in which prominent industry antagonists faced long-shot challenges. For instance, Fairshake didn’t spend against Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), one of the industry’s loudest critics on Capitol Hill, as he faced an age-focused primary challenge in Los Angeles — a sign of their hesitance to play in longshot races that would be difficult to win.
“These groups are institutions — they like a good batting average,” Sherman said in an interview on Tuesday. “And if you want a good batting average, then you limit the number of times that you go to bat against Major League pitching.”
Fairshake has, however, sprinkled money on crypto allies who are running in safer races, helping to pad its record. A Fairshake-linked PAC spent more than $400,000 in primary races for House Financial Services Chair French Hill and Sen. Mike Rounds, respectively, despite both incumbents being heavily favored.
Given that most of the crypto spending has focused on contests that are considered safe seats in November, the big question looming over the crypto PAC is how it will use its war chest in battleground general election races that could determine control of Congress. Many Republicans are hopeful that Fairshake will spend in the pivotal Ohio Senate contest that features former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who was a crypto antagonist during a previous stint as Senate Banking Chair. The PAC group spent more than $40 million to help defeat Brown in 2024.
“They go where they can make a difference,” said Ohio GOP Rep. Warren Davidson, who said he expects crypto money to be spent against Brown again.
In “super competitive races,” he added, “every little advantage in a general matters.”
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