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Ripple Co-Founder Larsen Flooding Kamala Harris’ Election Effort With XRP
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Jesse Hamilton
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Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen said he amplified his support for Vice President Kamala Harris, adding $10 million worth of XRP to her election efforts.
Larsen, now the crypto sector’s biggest individual Harris booster, said she’ll bring a “new approach to tech innovation.”
Ripple co-founder and Executive Chairman Chris Larsen said he’d added another $10 million in the Ripple-tied token (XRP) in an effort to boost Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat faces off against former President Donald Trump in next month’s election.
Larsen has become the crypto sector’s leading supporter for Harris, saying Monday in a posting on X that he’s pitching in with $10 million in XRP to the political action committee Future Forward.
“It’s time for the Democrats to have a new approach to tech innovation, including crypto,” he wrote, adding that Harris “will ensure that American technology dominates the world.”
Federal Election Commission records show Larsen had previously donated $1,750,000 to the PAC. He’s also given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic congressional campaigns.
While significant, his millions are overshadowed by the overall crypto industry’s campaign involvement, led by the super PAC Fairshake. That group’s $169 million in donations – primarily from Coinbase Inc. (COIN), Ripple Labs and Andreesen Horowitz (a16z) – has not only dominated the crypto sector’s election involvement but has put it among the biggest sources of campaign cash in the 2024 elections.
While Fairshake has made some clear efforts to divide its spending between the two major parties and to avoid taking a side in the presidential election, many of the industry’s leaders have come out individually for their presidential favorites.
Countering Larsen, some pro-Trump crypto names have included Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell and also venture capital giant a16z’s leaders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. However, Horowitz declared early this month that he also intended “a significant donation to entities who support the Harris Walz campaign,” because of a longstanding friendship.
Most of the money given by crypto leaders such as Larsen are going into super PACs. Rather than giving directly to a candidate’s own campaign, which is heavily limited for individuals, they can send as much as they like to the PACs, thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United opinion. Super PACs can make unlimited so-called “independent expenditures” on advertising that supports a candidate, as long as they don’t coordinate with the campaign.
While Larsen was among 88 corporate leaders who signed a letter endorsing Harris last month, Ripple and its CEO Brad Garlinghouse have sometimes sought to derail Democrats in these elections. Ripple’s giving leaned into the Republican side in one key situation: trying to defeat crypto critic Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) And Garlinghouse gave $50,000 to a super-PAC aimed at building a Republican majority in the Senate, according to FEC filings.
