How Crypto Won The Election | Josh Vlasto | Veronica Irwin - Unchained |

[Music] hello everyone up next we have Josh from fairshake and Veronica from Unchained to discuss how crypto won the election enjoy yes so that goes is this thing on yep all right hi there um my name is Veronica Irwin and I'm the regulatory reporter at Unchained um and I'm here with Josh blasto spokesman for fairshake uh just for a little bit of context Josh blasto has had a long career in politics and Communications um before being at fairshake he served as the press secretary for Senator Chuck Schumer uh he was chief of staff for Andrew Cuomo um and also did corporate Communications for the likes of Ron Pearlman and McAndrews and Forbes um for a little bit of context on fairshake um if anybody doesn't happen to know who they are um they were a they or they are a pack that was very involved in the November election um candidates that fairshake invested in won 85% of the time in the uh November general election and spent over or in fairshake spent over 139 million um on in November that's correct thanks so much Veronica it's great to be here it's great to meet everybody yeah so I think just to start I think a lot of a lot of people generally a lot of people in crypto were amazed at the amount of money that that fairshake uh raised and I guess how much crypto won to use the title of this of this talk in the November election was any of that a surprise to Fair Shake no I wouldn't say it was a surprise and first of all it's great to be here it's great to be among you know so many smart developers who are on The Cutting Edge of the next wave of the crypto economy it's something for those of us on the political side we're deeply committed to supporting you know I I don't think it was a surprise because the donors and our leadership you know really coalesced around a cohesive strategy and everybody was aligned everybody was on the same page going and right from the beginning and they knew they had to go big in order to have an immediate impact and if you look at the trajectory even going back to October 2023 um when our leadership became public that they were making such a significant investment there was clear clear response from the political class from members of Congress from the media that this was now that crypto and blockchain had a serious political organization that was going to be a major factor in 2024 I think what is partly so interesting to me was also Fair shak's strategy it wasn't just investing in politicians that were Pro crypto but it was also kind of supporting them in a way without always mentioning crypto directly um this was covered a lot um by Politico in its article headl headlined uh crypto has quietly become one of the biggest electoral players where they talked about how fairshake was funding a lot of advertisements that kind of were tailored to the region uh where that politi was and and didn't necessarily Focus just on their stance on crypto why did fairshake take that strategy it's a good question and and you have to go back to the foundational strategy our mission at fairshake was to support and elect members of Congress who are pro- crypto and oppose members of Congress that were opposed to crypto and blockchain anti- Innovation played politics with modern financial services so we had a clear rubric if you were Pro crypto and blockchain we'd support you and help you win if you were anti we would oppose you and so in order to execute that strategy we wanted to we tailored our message and the ads message and the and the instate political strategy to match what would have an impact on the race so it's standard for packs what regardless of what political ideology they are or what issue they're working on that if you want to have an impact on a particular Senate race for example in Ohio with sherid brown you want to talk about what's going to make the candidate you support successful regardless of what your own agenda is and each race that we engaged in the dozens in the house um and the three in the senate in the general election total of 10 across the entire cycle we really did in-depth research to look at what would have an impact so our preferred candidate would win it speaking of of shared Brown that was the The Campaign that you invested the most money into I believe it's about 40 million dollar I think a lot of people that are not super engaged in politics kind of look at that and get maybe a little bit uncomfortable about just the amount of money that's in politics these days um I think when I've been speaking at crypto or to crypto people at this this conference there's a lot of people that are I don't know maybe a little bit like they don't want to get engaged in politics or think it's a little bit dirty maybe sometimes can you explain like why why it's important for for crypto to take on that strategy of really really investing a lot of money in these campaigns so it's it's a great question and we get it all the time what money my answer to that is if you want if the industry that you are working in or if you're an investor that you're investing in wants to serve the broader public have a mass consumer base you know be accepted as part of the mainstream future of financial services that comes with scrutiny from government and it comes from an comes with being impacted by the discourse around public policy and industries that have chosen to avoid it can only avoid it so long before they become Mar marginalized and so many people at this conference so many people across the entire crypto and blockchain ecosystem are eager to grow their businesses go mainstream and with that comes interacting with government and public policy and I think the industry was so smart to make this significant investment because now they're going to have a place at the table in order to shape that policy right one of the key things that that the leadership of fair shake the do the individual donors our leadership lead donors coinbase and dreon and ripple clearly set out for us was that we were not opposed to regulation we wanted to see Congress take action to pass smart responsible regulation that could allow this industry to grow and so now given the success of fairshake given the success of the other companies that participated in the political process like last cycle we have a Congress and an Administration that wants to make America the leader in crypto and blockchain and that's going to be a really exciting par process to participate in had crypto not made those Investments they would not have a place at the table right now shaping their future yeah I mean you can definitely see that the the regulatory environment has changed so drastically even since I started on this beat in October um difference between between then and now is is pretty wild to see um I think another part also about uh stand with cryptos uh strategy or Fair Shake strategy that I kind of want to focus on um is that it's nonpartisan right you're supporting Democrats and Republicans um but the pack has received some criticism that it funds Democrats more often in districts that are solidly blue um while supporting Republicans more in swing States and Republicans were given more money just overall in this last uh cycle than Democrats um this was covered a little bit in in the New Yorker um where there was a donor uh Ron Conway also the venture capitalist who was pretty upset about this and some some emails that were leaked um what is fair Shake's response to that criticism so it's I think universally in politics there is no Democrat who thinks you shouldn't spend more on Democrats and less on Republicans and there is no Republican that thinks that you shouldn't spend more on Republicans and less on Democrats so that was a discourse and a debate that occurred the entire cycle um you know we had that in California where they said well you should have invested more in specific Democrats in California and we said well we're running a national strategy we're we're not running a California Strategy so everybody in politics always wants their side to get more and the other side to get less one of the reasons I think Fair Shake was so successful was we stuck to our strategy which was we are going to support crypto supporters and oppose crypto opponents regardless of party regardless of whether they're an incumbent or a challenger regardless of whether they're in the house or the Senate with the goal and this is what's really important for people here of building a long-term sustainable Coalition around advancing crypto and blockchain ecosystem in the United States that's the goal not incremental political victories but a long-term sustainable Coalition that can support this industry and its policy agenda far too many Industries pick a side and then become marginalized when that particular side is out of power we want people who really embrace the industry believe in its future and want to work with people here and the major companies to make sure that America is the leader going forward and I believe we we have built that we have over 300 some odd uh Pro crypto members across the house and the Senate that you know that was Unthinkable two years ago and and to be fair too I want to I kind of want to look at this from both sides of the political aisle I think that that article The New Yorker also talked about how there were there were some Republicans that expressed frustration I guess that fair Shake wasn't pick aside um and that that fairshake wasn't totally going in um on just a Republican party um I think that also kind of draws attention to the fact that I guess earlier this month um axios reported that there were two you know Pro crypto GOP specific packs um so what is your argument going forward um for future elections that the right strategy for crypto is to stay nonpartisan well I would what I would argue for the crypto industry in blockchain Industry to do is to stay unified and stay focused stay focused on the policy agenda right we have real momentum in this Congress and this Administration right real unanimity to get policy done this year unprecedented for this industry so I would just encourage everyone stay unified stay focused that being said there going to be a lot of people across this industry investing in political candidates and political causes that they care about that's great the more engagement the better but at the same time this is a longterm agenda and a long-term strategy so I would encourage people to stay unified continue to focus on supporting candidates that will advance the agenda that builds that helps all the people here build their businesses and I mean that's a good good layup for the next question I was going to ask just fairshake has accumulated correct me if I'm wrong but $116 million already for the 2026 midterms in general I my assumption or my understanding is that midterms aren't quite as expensive as as the general elections so that's really a lot of money in context of that um and and with more than a year to go I've talked to some sources that are that are speculating Fair shik could raise even more money than the 169 million um that it raised for the 2024 general election um that's also interesting because the crypto industry is expected to have a lot of pretty big victories pretty quickly we already have members of Congress talking about stable coin legislation Market structure legislation um there's the crra bill uh we already turned over Sab 121 so you know assuming that the industry gets what's on its wish list what is all that money for what are the problems that fair Shake is I don't know expected to Hope address in in the 2026 midterms or even after that it's a great question I'll take a quick step back which is you know I I take the amount of money that fairshake has raised going into the next cycle is a real sign of the success of the previous cycle the the major commitments from uh coinbase and dreon and ripple you know were announced prior to the election so those commitments were made before those supporters knew the outcome of the election you know that's how confident I think the industry was that our strategy was working and Paving that path for long-term success I think what you also said is exactly right which is we have real momentum going into this Congress you see Democrats you know Ruben gyo being the ranking member on the crypto assets subcommittee on banking in the Senate you know really talking about working with the Republicans to get things done is really important certainly the Republicans are taking the lead right now um they are running Congress they are deeply committed to it uh and are really making progress It's it's quite impressive I I think the one thing I would say is we're formulating our strategy now it's a long time before the primaries next year but you know the entire industry is watching very closely we are watching to make sure that the members that this industry supported are fulfilling the commitments they made to the public and to the voters to advance this agenda to bring you know real responsible regulation and Market structure towards uh you know in and around crypto and blockchain and so you know it's too early for us to Telegraph what we're going to do but what I can tell you is we're watching this all very closely you know this is the country and the voters were clear that they want crypto and blockchain as part of the financial services ecosystem going forward um and the administration uh and Congress seem committed to following through on it is there a fundraising goal for the 2026 midterms well I look so I don't think there's a specific number and I'm you know I'm I'm the the mere spokesperson but what I'll tell you is this is an industry that really saw the the ROI uh when it comes to an investment in a strong thoughtful sophisticated political strategy and so I I have confidence that fairshake and all the other key F key players will have the resources they need going into next year and Beyond to ensure that this Coalition this bipartisan Coalition continues to build and that would be my advice by the way for everybody who's here right who's looking to really build out their projects and their platforms and their customer bases right start thinking now about how you're going to operate in a regulatory environment start thinking now about what your political and public affairs strategy is what your communication strategy is because with this level of exposure and this level of policy success is going to come continued scrutiny and the more you're prepared for that the more successful you'll be if you look at fintech in particular that went through such a disruption after Silicon Valley Bank the companies and the startups that survived were the ones who inv invested in compliance public affairs and thoughtful Communications and now they are benefiting from extraordinary Tailwinds from the outcome of the election um and so I think the people here can really look to that as an example of bringing you know working with people and thinking about a thoughtful political strategy so you're ready for the future and and on that you're almost beating me to my last question but just for the people that are listening um I think a lot of people are probably listening to this and saying well I can't give money in the amount that andreon or or coinbase is giving but how can everyday crypto people developers builders get involved in in fairshake and the success that fairshake has brought to the industry look and and and and we were chatting about this before we came on you know the the companies across the Spectrum not only the three leaders but you know the more than a dozen companies that made that initial investment really set the tone and obviously a lot of people in this room don't have those kind of resources but what I'll tell you is there are a lot of organizations out there that are deeply deeply committed to advancing this policy agenda and I would encourage you to work with them whether it's the cedar Innovation Foundation the blockchain association uh the digital Chamber of Commerce you know these are advocacy groups that are really committed to being your representatives in Washington and it doesn't either take a lot of money it doesn't take even sometimes any money to engage with them be supportive of their efforts give them feedback on the policy agenda because they are out there working for you um and so yes the the significant resources are in Fair Shake um but there are lots of different Grassroots efforts to engage your employees whether it's through stand with crypto um whether it's to engage the communities in which You're Building uh your businesses um but I would really engage in the political process in a thoughtful way don't just tweet things get involved talk to these groups hire good gr people right hire good compliance people who can advise your leadership on the best path forward awesome well I think we can leave it there thanks so much this was a pleasure thank you so much and thank you for everything you do it Unchained you got you know the Unchained is just an unquestioned reputable resource for really firsthand knowledge on what's going on in Washington and the regulatory structures so thank you for everything you do and thanks for having me here thank you so much [Applause]