Key Takeaways
- Kraken plans to donate $2 million to Republican aligned groups.
- America 1st Digital and Freedom Fund are set to receive $1 million each from the exchange.
- Kraken previously donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Kraken is making a large donation to the pro-crypto lobby, supporting America 1st Digital and Freedom Fund with $1 million each.
While CEO Arjun Sethi stated “we are not backing a party,” Kraken’s donations have landed squarely in the Republican camp.
Kraken’s Two Million Donation
Announcing Kraken’s latest commitments on X, Sethi argued that although the sector has won some important victories since Donald Trump entered the White House, “the fight for crypto in the United States is far from over.”
Situating crypto policy in the context of fundamental rights to privacy and financial freedom, he said Kraken backs principles including the right to self custody of assets, and the ability to build and use decentralized systems without permission.
Backing Republican Causes
Despite Sethi’s nonpartisan posturing, Kraken’s donations will only benefit one party.
Freedom Fund is mostly known as Senator Mike Crapo’s leadership PAC. However, with Crapo not up for reelection until 2029, its current expenditure is mostly geared toward other Republican causes and candidates.
As Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Crapo could influence how digital assets are treated under the U.S. tax system.
While crypto didn’t make its way into July’s budget megabill, which extended tax cuts introduced in 2017, Crapo has kept the door open to further legislation dealing with crypto, stating that “there are a lot of tax proposals that are still out there.”
Compared to Freedom Fund, America 1st Digital, which is deeply embedded in the MAGA movement, is more explicitly geared toward shaping crypto policy.
The organization’s goals include passing digital asset legislation and establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
How the Crypto Lobby Became Partisan
Kraken’s donations highlight how the crypto lobbying landscape has grown since Trump’s first presidency.
During the Biden years, the government’s combative stance alienated many in the sector, and crypto became a more overtly right-wing cause
A watershed moment for the movement was the creation of Fairshake in 2023.
The heavyweight super PAC backed by firms like Coinbase and Ripple funneled tens of millions of dollars into key races, targeting candidates seen as hostile to digital assets and bolstering those open to regulatory reform.
While Fairshake maintains a non-partisan stance and has supported both Republican and Democratic candidates, Trump’s victory has consolidated pro-crypto donors’ support for the GOP.
Kraken was among a group of crypto companies that donated to Donald Trump’s inauguration, contributing $1 million to help pay for the festivities. According to reports at the time, Ondo Finance also donated $1 million, while Ripple coughed up $5 million in XRP.
The crypto sector’s embrace of Republican causes doesn’t stop with Trump, however.
With Republicans more openly embracing digital assets as a plank of economic competitiveness and financial freedom, industry donors increasingly concentrate resources into Republican-aligned groups like America 1st Digital and Freedom Fund.
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James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
