The Digital Freedom Fund spent $7.5 million against Sherrod Brown, adding to the $56.5 million Fairshake put into the Ohio contest.
ByWayne Jones
Crypto-focused super PACs spent more than $176 million across 100+ races in the 2026 US midterms.
However, their biggest campaign ended in defeat after Democrat Sherrod Brown defeated Republican Jon Husted to win Ohio’s Senate contest despite a $64 million effort to stop him.
Brown Beats Husted Despite $64M Crypto Campaign
According to NBC figures, Brown got 2.24 million votes, making up about 49.7% of the total cast, with Husted receiving 2.06 million, or 45.5%, with 97.3% of the vote counted.
Heading into this particular showdown, crypto groups had
Heading into this particular showdown, crypto groups had spent more than $64 million trying to prevent that exact outcome, with Fairshake, the industry’s flagship super PAC, accounting for $56.5 million of the spending, and Digital Freedom Fund, supported by the Winklevoss twins who co-founded the Gemini exchange, contributing another $7.5 million.
Brown frequently criticized the crypto sector during his time as chair of the Senate Banking Committee, but during the campaign, he seemed to have somewhat softened his stance, even telling the New York Times that crypto “has a part, a role, in our economy.” Still, he pledged to take on what he called the “crypto/data center crowd.”
Recall that in 2024, Brown, who had served for three terms as Ohio senator, lost to Republican Bernie Moreno, garnering 2.59 million (46.4%) votes to Moreno’s 2.8 million (50.2%). That race was the biggest single target of crypto money at the time and drew more ad spending than any Senate contest in history, with the digital asset industry backing the Republican candidate with a $40 million war chest.
The latest spending didn’t produce the same outcome, and researcher Molly White, who has been tracking which crypto and AI players have been supporting with their money, described it as a “HUGE loss for crypto super PACs.”
