Crypto biggest political spending machine is turning its attention to Ohio. Fairshake, the super PAC funded by Coinbase and Ripple Labs, plans to pour $30 million into opposing former senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio 2026 Senate race, a move that follows the Senate failure to advance the CLARITY Act on September 15.
The bill, formally the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, went down 49 to 50 on a procedural vote, leaving Congress with limited session days before 2027 to revive it. Within a week, industry groups began framing the midterms, now 42 days away, as the next battleground for crypto policy.
A familiar target
Brown is no stranger to Fairshake checkbook. The PAC and its affiliates spent roughly $41 million against him in his 2024 reelection bid, which he lost to Republican Bernie Moreno. Brown, a longtime critic of the crypto industry during his Senate tenure, is now running to reclaim the seat.
Stand With Crypto, the advocacy arm backed by Coinbase, has warned lawmakers that voting records on the CLARITY Act would follow them into the 2026 elections. The message after the vote was blunt: support for the bill would be rewarded, opposition would be funded against.
No spending disclosed yet
So far, the money has not moved. As of Monday, Fairshake and its affiliated PACs, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress, had not reported any expenditures to the Federal Election Commission following the CLARITY vote. FEC filings also showed no post-vote spending by Fellowship or the Digital Freedom Fund.
That silence does not mean inaction. Super PACs often coordinate messaging and ad buys before filings appear, and independent expenditures must be reported within 48 hours of publication under FEC rules, so any advertising push would surface quickly.
What the CLARITY failure means
The September 15 vote was a cloture motion, not final passage. It needed 60 votes to open debate, and Republicans fell short when roughly ten Democrats declined to cross over. Democrats had pushed for stronger conflict-of-interest and illicit-finance provisions, pointing to the Trump family crypto holdings, while Republicans wanted a bipartisan coalition behind a bill that would split oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC.
The House passed the bill 294 to 134 in July 2025, but the Senate version stalled. Prediction markets had already priced the odds of the bill becoming law this year at 14 percent, down from a February peak of 82 percent, before the vote confirmed the pessimism.
With the bill effectively dead for 2026, industry lobbying shifts to the midterms. Fairshake ended the last cycle as one of the largest sources of outside spending in congressional races, and its treasury remains funded by some of the sector largest companies.
The stakes in Ohio
Ohio matters for symbolic and practical reasons. Brown chaired the Senate Banking Committee when it held some of the sector most hostile hearings, and his defeat in 2024 was celebrated by crypto advocates as proof that anti-crypto positions carry electoral cost. His comeback attempt gives the industry a high-profile race to test that thesis again.
For the CLARITY Act itself, the path forward now runs through 2027 at the earliest. Any new Senate composition seated after the midterms would restart the committee process, and the bill sponsors would need to rebuild the coalition that collapsed this month.
Meanwhile, regulators are not waiting. The CFTC has said it plans crypto rules regardless of the bill fate, and the SEC has moved a crypto custody rule forward with White House review. The OCC is targeting November for final GENIUS Act stablecoin rules.
The $30 million figure, first reported by Gate News citing Fairshake plans, would make Ohio one of the most expensive Senate races of the cycle even before other groups weigh in. Whether the spending materializes in ads, ground operations or both should become clear as FEC filings land in the coming weeks.
Fairshake was formed in late 2023 and stunned political observers when it outspent most party committees in individual House and Senate races. Its donor list includes Coinbase, Ripple Labs and a range of venture firms, and it holds cash well beyond what it has so far committed to the 2026 cycle.
The timing also carries risk. Polling has shown crypto ownership spreading across party lines, but the issue rarely ranks among voters top concerns in an economy shaped by an oil shock and a Fed hiking cycle. Money alone did not save the CLARITY Act, and it may not decide Ohio either.
Still, the industry has few alternatives. The CLARITY Act was the product of two years of committee work, and its collapse leaves no vehicle for market-structure legislation before 2027. Electoral pressure is the remaining lever, and Fairshake is the best-funded one the sector has.
Fairshake was formed in late 2023 and stunned political observers when it outspent most party committees in individual House and Senate races. Its donor list includes Coinbase, Ripple Labs and a range of venture firms, and it holds cash well beyond what it has so far committed to the 2026 cycle.
The timing also carries risk. Polling has shown crypto ownership spreading across party lines, but the issue rarely ranks among voters top concerns in an economy shaped by an oil shock and a Fed hiking cycle. Money alone did not save the CLARITY Act, and it may not decide Ohio either.
Still, the industry has few alternatives. The CLARITY Act was the product of two years of committee work, and its collapse leaves no vehicle for market-structure legislation before 2027. Electoral pressure is the remaining lever, and Fairshake is the best-funded one the sector has.