FTX billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried is set to become the biggest-ever political donor in a single U.S. election after pledging to spend up to $1 billion.
Bankman-Fried revealed via the Pushkin Industries podcast that he intends to donate the funds to the 2024 U.S. Democratic presidential campaign.
The 30-year-old said that his donation would exceed $100 million and could be worth a lot more depending on the candidates running for office, with $1 billion touted as a “soft ceiling”.
“I would guess north of $100 million,” said Bankman-Fried. “As for how much more than that, I don’t know. It’s really dependent on exactly who’s running where for what.
Proposed figure is a ‘soft ceiling’
“$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 now and then – but at least sort of a soft ceiling.”
If all goes to plan, Bankman-Fried’s proposed donation would see him become the biggest donor in U.S. political history surpassing George Soros, Ken Griffin, Donald Sussman, and the Adelsons.
Typically, political donors spend around $50 million on average in each cycle, leading pundits to question the impact of Bankman-Fried’s future donation.
The FTX boss has already shelled out up to $20 million supporting Democratic candidates, the largest being a $12 million backing of a Congressional candidate that lost out in the primaries.
FTX chief could be lobbying for friendlier crypto rules
In the last 12 months, Bankman-Fried has donated nearly $200 million to charity as part of his belief in Effective Altruism, to do good for the greatest number of people by giving money away.
Critics, however, question the motives behind his increasing involvement in politics. The crypto industry has increased its lobbying lately as regulators and lawmakers find ways to apply new rules to the largely unregulated crypto industry.
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