Ripple donates $1 million to unseat Warren; Winklevoss twins donate to pro-Trump super PAC

Quick Take

  • Ripple Labs has donated $1 million to a super PAC set up by attorney James Murphy to help unseat Sen. Elizabeth Warren and elect pro-crypto lawyer John Deaton.
  • Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss also donated $500,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC, according to a separate filing with the Federal Election Commission on Monday.

Ripple Labs donated $1 million to a new super political action committee, Commonwealth Unity Fund, set up by attorney James Murphy to help unseat anti-crypto Sen. Elizabeth Warren and elect pro-crypto lawyer John Deaton.

The donation was made on May 15, according to a quarterly filing on Monday with the Federal Election Commission. Murphy also donated $50,000 on April 15. Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett first noted the donation on X.

Ripple is currently engaged in an ongoing legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to the sale of XRP, which the agency says is an unregistered security. In July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres of New York ruled that some of Ripple’s secondary sales of XRP did not violate securities laws due to the blind bid process in place for them. However, she ruled that other direct sales of XRP to institutional investors constituted securities investment contracts.

In May, Ripple announced an additional $25 million donation to the super PAC Fairshake in support of pro-crypto political candidates during the 2024 U.S. elections. That followed a $25 million donation Ripple made to the same group in 2023. Coinbase and a16z crypto are also among the firm’s donating to Fairshake this year.

In February, Deaton officially made his bid to secure the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts to face off against Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren in November’s election. However, Deaton is just one of the declared candidates running in the Republican primary, scheduled to take place on Sept. 3.

Winklevoss twins donate $500,000 to pro-Trump super PAC

On June 21, Gemini co-founders and bitcoin billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss donated $250,000 each to the pro-Trump super PAC, America PAC, according to a separate filing with the Federal Election Commission on Monday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk was also committing around $45 million a month to the super PAC. However, replying to the WSJ on X, Musk said the report was fake, and he was not named in the quarterly filing. 

Fairshake also received $4.9 million in funding from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in February, and the twins announced they had each donated $1 million worth of bitcoin to Donald Trump's campaign last month.

Unlike traditional PACs, super PACs are not allowed to donate money directly to political candidates, and their spending must be independent of the candidates they support.

The filings came on the same day that Trump’s chances of victory in the U.S. Presidential election surged to 72% on the decentralized prediction market platform Polymarket, following the failed assassination attempt on the pro-crypto candidate over the weekend. President Joe Biden’s odds are currently just 17%, according to the platform.

Also on Monday, Trump selected the crypto-friendly Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his VP pick. Vance has also been favorable to the crypto industry and critical of the SEC. The venture capitalist turned politician also owns between $100,000 and $250,000 in bitcoin, as of 2022, according to an October 2023 financial disclosure.

The Block reached out to Ripple and the Winklevoss twins for comment.


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About Author

James Hunt is a reporter at The Block and writer of The Daily newsletter, keeping you up to speed on the latest crypto news every weekday. Prior to joining The Block in 2022, James spent four years as a freelance writer in the industry, contributing to both publications and crypto project content. James’ coverage spans everything from Bitcoin and Ethereum to Layer 2 scaling solutions, avant-garde DeFi protocols, evolving DAO governance structures, trending NFTs and memecoins, regulatory landscapes, crypto company deals and the latest market updates. You can get in touch with James on Telegram or 𝕏 via @humanjets or email him at [email protected].

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