Crypto super PAC Fairshake has $108m still unspent

The Guardian wrote about tech money in the US midterms this week under the label broligarchs. The word is doing a lot of work, so we went to the filings instead. Fairshake, the crypto industry's main super PAC, reports $137.92m of receipts and $99.11m of contributions for the cycle, with $108.29m sitting in the account on 31 August.

The unspent part is the story. Against that cash pile, Fairshake has made $13.3m of independent expenditures. Eighty-nine percent of the war chest had not been deployed as of the last reporting date, with the election a fortnight away. This is a committee that is loaded rather than firing.

“Cash on hand at the end of the period: $108,293,831.76.”

— Fairshake, FEC filing covering the period to 31 August 2026

Who paid in

The money came from a short list. Ripple Labs gave $25m on 29 August 2025 and $23m on 21 January 2025. AH Capital Management, the Andreessen Horowitz entity, gave $23.8m on 10 December 2025. Coinbase gave $15m on 14 March 2025.

One line in that schedule is a trap worth naming. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz each appear for $11,900,000 on the same 10 December date, and $11.9m plus $11.9m is exactly the firm's $23.8m. Those are partnership attributions of one cheque, not two more donations, and the same pattern sits in the AI industry's filings that we read last week.

Where it is aimed

The aim is bipartisan on purpose. Fairshake is backing candidates in 32 House races, 13 Democrats and 19 Republicans, with $1m committed to each of six of them. A committee that funds both sides is not buying a party. It is buying a position on one subject and making the subject expensive to oppose. The subject is narrow and concrete: which agency writes the rules for an exchange, and what counts as a security.

How it compares with the AI money

Set it beside the AI industry's vehicle for scale. Leading the Future reported $75.98m raised, $52.13m spent and $23.85m left through 30 September. Crypto is sitting on 4.5 times that cash and has spent a quarter as much. The AI side went loud early; the crypto side is holding its powder.

Across crypto, AI, big tech and online betting, Public Citizen counts $294m aimed at federal races this cycle, which is the number the broligarch framing is reaching for. Whether it lands is a separate question from whether it is spent, and the New York mayor is already arguing the other side without that kind of budget. What settles this is the next filing: $108m either moves in the final fortnight or it does not, and either way the report will say where.

Informational material, not investment advice. Committee figures cover 1 January 2025 to 31 August 2026, and money raised after that date appears only in reports not yet due.