BOSTON — Crypto executives are finding a new investment opportunity: The long shot GOP rival to their industry’s chief critic in Congress, Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
More than half a dozen cryptocurrency executives and prominent enthusiasts have donated to John Deaton, a political no-name who achieved folk-hero-like status in the crypto community for battling the SEC in a landmark crypto case last year. He moved to Massachusetts in January and registered as a Republican to take on Warren.
Deaton has virtually no chance of unseating Warren in deep-blue Massachusetts. But that’s not stopping crypto proponents from personally spending to boost him — and potentially blunt their Capitol Hill adversary.
The donations come from industry boosters including Anthony Scaramucci, the Winklevoss twins and executives at the crypto firm Ripple.
“Elizabeth Warren represents all of the worst things about American politicians,” said Scaramucci, a one-time Trump White House communications director who founded the investment firm Skybridge Capital. “It’s no longer about what’s right or wrong for the country, but what’s hard left. So we’re going to work our hardest to spend as much money as we can and raise as much money as we can to defeat her.”
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and the company’s executive chair and co-founder, Chris Larsen, both plunked down the maximum contribution of $6,600 — half for the primary, half for the general election, according to Deaton’s campaign. Deaton’s amicus brief in the SEC’s enforcement case against the company helped build his notoriety in the crypto world.
Scaramucci, the crypto evangelist who recently hosted Deaton on his podcast, also maxed out to Deaton.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who co-founded the embattled crypto exchange Gemini, shelled out $6,600 apiece. Two other crypto executives, Ethereum and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson and Casa co-founder Jameson Lopp, both donated the primary maximum of…
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