Democratic crypto billionaire and founder of cryptocurrency exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, has stated he expects to spend around $1 billion on the upcoming 2024 elections, and if achieved could render him the biggest-ever political donation in a single election.
Bankman-Fried said in a podcast on Tuesday that he anticipates giving away “north of $100 million” in the next presidential election, and that he has a “soft ceiling” of $1 billion. The spending is likely to be on the higher end if former president Donald Trump runs again.
Alex Baumgart, a researcher with campaign finance tracker OpenSecrets, stated that that kind of money would “be in a league of its own.”
Bankman-Fried has an estimated worth of around $20 billion. According to him, he has already given away more than $200 million to various causes. Bankman-Fried is considered an effective altruist, which means he believes in earning large sums of money with the goal of giving it away.
The founder cautions that his political plans are still in flux and that they will be contingent on what the landscape looks like.
On the Pushkin Industries Podcast “What’s Your Problem?”, Bankman-Fried said, “I would guess north of $100 million. As for how much more than that, I don’t know. It really does depend on what happens. It’s really dependent on exactly who’s running where for what.” “[$1 billion] is a decent thing to look at as a – I would hate to say hard ceiling, because who knows what’s going to happen between now and then – but at least sort of a soft ceiling.”
That amount of money will have never been precedented and would effectively obliterate prior donor records ten-fold over – as long as it were all spent as “hard money”, which would include donations to candidates, super PAC, partiest, and other groups who report to the FEC.
Although Bankman-Fried would claim the record for the biggest political donation contribution, it’s impossible to really know how much other wealthy donors have actually spent to influence political outcomes through something called “dark money”, which is essentially the idea that the money wasn’t categorized in a way that directly corresponds to a political candidate, although it’s intention is such.
According to OpenSecrets, the current record for the biggest “hard-money” political donation was by late Republican casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam. They have continuously competed to remain the biggest donors in the country against Democratic billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, who each have spent around $75 – $150 million in the last three elections.
Liberal billionaire George Soros committed to spend $125 million towards this year’s midterms.
Aside from these well-known names, even mega-donors usually hit a ceiling of around $40 to $60 million per election. So even Bankman-Fried’s minimum contribution of $100 million would put him in the same and exclusive league of the country’s biggest donors.
Baumgart says, “If this is sustained and it’s actually fully realized, it could have an immense impact on U.S. politics,” he continues, “the question is does his spending bear fruit in the midterms? And ultimately I think that will weigh pretty heavily in his decision to keep this going or not.”
Way before Bankman-Fried became a billionaire he was already practicing effective altruism by donating large portions of his paychecks. Even now after achieving great success, still lives modestly, living with roommates and driving a Toyota Corolla.
