Crypto PACs spent $170 million on the midterms—and came up nearly dry

Election night delivered a sweeping win for Democrats—and an enormous loss for the crypto industry. The sector’s political action committees, which amassed hundreds of millions of dollars to back pro-crypto candidates nationwide, saw several high-profile picks lose, upending what had seemed like a reliable formula for turning money into political power. Crypto PACs including Fairshake , Defend American Jobs, and Protect Progress spent more than $170 million of their roughly $260 million war chest on the midterms, according to Tech Influence Watch, an independent public-interest tracker curated by software engineer and tech writer Molly White.