After two elections where he bucked Ohio’s rightward trend, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is clinging to the narrowest of polling leads. If he loses to unpopular car salesman Bernie Moreno next month, he might have crypto to blame.

Cryptocurrency companies are pouring tens of millions of dollars into the race through a super PAC in response to Brown’s scathing criticism of the industry as Senate Banking Committee chair.

Their leading role in the race shows how much money — no matter the “coin” — talks.

Crypto sat in the political doghouse after the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX fraud two years ago, but it drew broad bipartisan support for its top legislative priority this May as it showered money on congressional races.

If crypto can take down Brown next month, critics warn, it could lead to more success for an agenda that includes neutering the Securities and Exchange Commission and opening the door for more traditional banks to hold crypto.

“They’re losing in the courts, they’re losing in the court of public opinion, so really their only avenue here to continue their scams is to get enough politicians to change the law,” said Dennis Kelleher, the CEO of financial reform nonprofit Better Markets. “The key to that is taking out anybody who opposes them.”

Mad Money

Operating through a cluster of blandly named super PACs, the crypto industry had made nearly half of all corporate donations in this year’s elections as of August. A single pro-crypto super PAC, Fairshake, has raised more than $200 million and spent more than $132 million this cycle.

Fairshake and its affiliates have spent millions backing Democratic Senate candidates Reps. Ruben Gallego in Arizona and Elissa Slotkin in Michigan, along with House candidates on both sides of the aisle.

Nowhere has crypto’s influence been more obvious than Ohio. In the last election cycle, a super PAC bankrolled by Bankman-Fried backed now-Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, over progressive Nina Turner.

This year, crypto is coming even harder into the state. A........

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