New York Senator Receives Over $150,000 in Donations From Crypto Executives

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand campaign finance report revealed that she received over $150,000 in donations from crypto stakeholders.

According to the funding report, Democrat Senator for New York, declared a total of over $1.3 million in donations. Several crypto executives, including Sam Bankman-Fried and the Winklevoss twins, were among the donors.

SBF donated $5,800, while FTX.US President Brett Harrison gave $2,900. Key executives in crypto hedge fund Multicoin Capital, including its co-founder, Kyle Samani, donated a combined $19,400.

Some of the donors also have affiliations with Uniswap Labs, Meta, Andreessen Horowitz, HODL PAC, dYdX, and Andreessen Horowitz.

Additionally, at least eight chief executives of crypto firms donated to the New York Senator’s campaign last quarter. These include Ariel Seidman of Hivemappers, Mo Shaikh of Aptos, Charles Cascarilla of Paxos, Avani Miriyala of Matcha Design Labs, and Ryan Selkis of Messari.

Donations also came from individuals heading crypto units in traditional financial institutions. Head of regulatory and policy at Bain Capital, TuongVy Le, gave $1,000, while head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Amy Odenberg, donated $1,500.

Meanwhile, donors weren’t limited to individuals in private firms. Industry group leaders also donated to the campaign, including Texas Blockchain Council President Lee Bratcher, head of industry affairs at the Blockchain Association Dan Spuller, and Crypto Council for Innovation CEO Sheila Warren.

Senator proposed bi-partisan crypto bill

Gillibrand, a veteran senator, and former presidential aspirant, became popular in crypto circles earlier this year after proposing the bipartisan crypto regulation bill along with Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. Lummis recently said she is learning about non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from Gillibrand.

Most stakeholders in the crypto industry have welcomed the proposal, and the senators also posted a copy on GitHub to get the opinions of those in the industry.

However, the disclosure comes as no surprise, given that crypto stakeholders have been donating massively to politicians to influence policies. 

Bankman-Fried said a few months ago that he might spend up to a billion dollars in the next elections. The crypto industry has already spent around $28 million on elections as of March 31.