FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried is avoiding his previous comments about spending $1 billion or more in the political race through the 2024 election. The crypto billionaire had said in May on the Pushkin Industries podcast “What’s Your Problem” that he could give more than $100 million in the next presidential election.
Bankman-Fried revealed that he had a “soft ceiling” of $1 billion. But this week, he did a backtrack saying that it was a dumb quote. The FTX CEO thinks his messaging was sort of sloppy and inconsistent in some cases. Bankman-Fried has invested $40 million, so far this year, in political action committees and campaigns in the runup to the midterm elections. Most of his money went to Democratic candidates. He has been said to be the driving force behind the “Protect Our Future PAC”.
Now, the crypto enthusiast is putting a pause on his political campaign. Bankman-Fried told Politico that at some point when you have given the message to voters, one cannot do a whole lot more. He said more time can be spent on it, and more messaging, more money, and anything else, but then one is not accomplishing anything more. Moreover, the FTX boss has been spending a lot of money in the last few months to prop up the digital asset industry during the ongoing 2022 crypto winter. He has helped out multiple crypto firms to protect against a wider contagion effect across the sector.
In recent months, the crypto industry seems to be under pressure as U.S regulators and politicians have increasingly turned their focus to crypto policy. Crypto firm bankruptcies and bank runs have eroded confidence in the digital asset class.
