Ripple's Garlinghouse Says 2024 Election Was a Chance to 'Educate Voters'

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in an interview with 60 Minutes, said that the 2024 election was a "major victory" for crypto as the majority of Fairshake, a crypto political action committee (PAC), backed candidates, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/news-analysis/2024/12/02/crypto-cash-fueled-53-members-of-the-next-u-s-congress" target="_blank">won their seats.</a> And this was a non-partisan effort, as crypto, itself is non-partisan, he argued, pointing to the cross-aisle support for the digital assets bill FIT21. “Of the 29 Republicans and 33 Democrats the industry backed in congressional races, 85% won. It’s incredible,” he said.

“We absolutely helped supercharge the candidates with the money in the coffers… That’s absolutely right,” he said, arguing that, like other industries, they took the electoral cycle as a chance to educate voters. “Do I think we had an impact to elect a Democratic senator in Michigan—Elissa Slotkin? Yes, absolutely. Do I think we had an impact in Arizona? A Democratic senator in Arizona, Gallego? Absolutely,” he continued. While Ripple-supported Fairshake was a non-partisan effort, one of the defining moments during the election was then-Republican candidate Donald Trump's <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2024/07/15/trumps-speech-at-bitcoin-conference-will-mark-a-pivotal-moment-for-crypto" target="_blank">embrace of crypto</a>, which was a <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2019/07/12/us-president-donald-trump-says-hes-not-a-fan-of-bitcoin" target="_blank">transformation from his prior stance</a> where he said he was "not a fan". “I think it’s clear that Donald Trump embraced crypto and crypto embraced Donald Trump,” Garlinghouse said.