A crypto-industry-backed political action committee affiliate has intensified its advertising push ahead of next week’s Michigan Republican primary, according to the latest Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings. Protect Progress PAC, which the filings indicate is funded largely by contributions from cryptocurrency companies Ripple Labs and Coinbase, has spent more than $2 million on media to influence the contest in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District.

The most recent updates, filed as of Thursday, show the committee ramping up spending in support of U.S. Representative Shri Thanedar while also funding opposition to his Democratic challenger, Donavan McKinney. The renewed disclosures come shortly after earlier reporting showed the PAC had already ramped up its buy—effectively doubling its reported ad spending from the prior week.

Key takeaways

• FEC filings show Protect Progress PAC has spent over $2 million on media for Michigan’s 13th district primary race.
• New disclosures add $884,240 to advertisements supporting Shri Thanedar and more than $150,000 to ads opposing Donavan McKinney.
• The PAC’s funding is described in the filings as being largely backed by cryptocurrency companies Ripple Labs and Coinbase.
• Thanedar’s legislative record includes support for crypto-related bills such as the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act.
• Protect Progress is an affiliate of Fairshake, a major outside spender in U.S. elections tied to crypto industry policy goals.

Michigan’s 13th district: Protect Progress increases ad buys

According to FEC disclosures accessed via the commission’s docquery system, Protect Progress PAC reported spending more than a combined $2 million on media in connection with Michigan Representative Shri Thanedar and his Democratic primary contest against Donavan McKinney.

As of Thursday, the filings reflect a further escalation: compared with what the PAC had already reported spending a week earlier, the committee’s latest report effectively doubled its media spending. The additional outlay includes $884,240 dedicated to ads supporting Thanedar and more than $150,000 aimed at opposing McKinney.

The Michigan primary is scheduled for Tuesday, but the filings underscore that the committee and its network have been willing to deploy substantial resources well before Election Day. Similar patterns have been visible across multiple congressional races during the 2026 cycle, according to the article’s referenced coverage and FEC-based reporting.

Why the race is drawing crypto-linked political money

Thanedar’s congressional record is at the center of the narrative around why outside groups see his candidacy as important for crypto policy. During his time in the House, he voted in favor of the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act and supported the legislative push for clearer digital asset market structure—the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, which has been discussed in the Senate.

He also cosponsored the Promoting Innovation in Blockchain Development Act, an effort aimed at protecting developers. Supporters of crypto policy reform often point to such measures as steps toward a more predictable regulatory environment, while critics argue the industry has too much influence over the political process.

For voters watching the contest, the spending escalation suggests the primary is being treated as more than a local political test—it is being framed by donors and advocacy networks as part of a broader strategy to influence which lawmakers back specific digital asset legislation.

McKinney’s response and the broader allegations over crypto influence

McKinney has publicly characterized the ad push as a payoff for political favors. In a July 21 statement related to the PAC spending, he said “the crypto lobby is paying my opponent back for helping Trump make over $1 billion since taking office,” according to a video shared on his campaign’s Facebook page.

That comment appears to reference the U.S. President’s disclosures about crypto-related earnings, including a figure cited in earlier reporting referenced by the article—more than $1.4 billion from crypto investments in 2025—along with concerns raised by Democrats that Trump could be using his role to profit through policies such as GENIUS.

While those claims are rooted in political argument rather than direct proof of intent tied to the specific Michigan ads, they highlight a recurring tension in U.S. crypto politics: outside spending may be framed by industry-aligned PACs as policy support, while opponents often describe it as evidence of undue influence.

Cointelegraph reports that it reached out to both Thanedar’s and McKinney’s campaigns for comment on the PAC expenditures but did not receive an immediate response.

Fairshake’s affiliates: national momentum in multiple primaries

Protect Progress PAC is an affiliate of Fairshake, a political network that has become one of the most prominent outside spenders linked to crypto industry policy goals. Fairshake was responsible for spending more than $170 million across the 2024 election cycle through media buys supporting candidates it viewed as aligned with crypto-friendly regulation, as summarized in the article.

The article also notes that affiliates have already deployed millions of dollars in 2026 races beyond Michigan, pointing to activity in states including Texas and Illinois. In addition, it cites Public Citizen reporting from June that Fairshake and its affiliates accounted for more than $82 million out of roughly $189 million deployed by crypto companies during the 2026 election cycle.

Fairshake itself reportedly listed holding a $193 million “war chest” as of January, according to figures referenced in the piece. Taken together with the Michigan disclosures, the pattern suggests a sustained approach: deploy substantial resources early enough to shape narrative and voter attention around specific legislative priorities.

The article further describes similar affiliate activity in other congressional primaries. It says Defend American Jobs PAC spent more than $65,000 on media in Washington’s 4th congressional district to support a Republican candidate, with Washington holding primaries on the same day as Michigan.

In Alabama, scheduled primaries on Aug. 11 are also described as a focus for Fairshake-linked spending. FEC filings cited in the article indicate Defend American Jobs PAC spent more than $511,000 on media supporting Jerry Carl Jr., a Republican who represented Alabama’s 1st congressional district from 2021 to 2025.

For readers tracking the cycle, these parallel contests illustrate how crypto-aligned PAC affiliates appear to treat primary elections as strategic targets—places where candidate positioning on digital asset policy could be determined before general election dynamics begin.

What to watch as Michigan’s primary approaches

With Michigan’s 13th district primary scheduled for Tuesday, the key question is whether Protect Progress’s latest ad surge will further alter voter perceptions or turnout in the remaining days. More broadly, the filings reinforce that crypto-linked political spending is not limited to high-profile general election races—affiliates are actively contesting primaries with resources intended to influence policy direction well after election season announcements fade.

Trading volume for tokenized stocks and ETFs surged 288% to a record $11.3 billion in July, though most of the increase came from a single Binance-linked token.

Binance bStocks accounted for $9.41 billion, or 83.3% of the total, according to CoinDesk Data’s latest Stablecoins & Tokenized Assets report. A bStocks token, QQQB, tracking Invesco’s QQQ ETF, generated $9.27 billion alone, equivalent to roughly 82% of all tokenized-equity volume.

Excluding QQQB, July volume was roughly $2.03 billion, about 30% below the market’s implied June total of $2.91 billion. xStocks volume dropped to $335 million from $1.55 billion, while Ondo recorded $792 million and Backpack $479 million, the report details.

QQQB began trading on Binance on June 30 with zero maker fees through Aug. 31. Binance also began counting stocks and bStocks volume at three times its traded value for some users seeking higher VIP tiers on July 23, though the multiplier does not alter actual trading volume.

An affiliate committee of the crypto-focused Fairshake political operation has increased its ad spending ahead of next week’s primary election in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The spending highlights how cryptocurrency companies continue to shape campaign activity through super PAC and affiliate structures as lawmakers consider major digital-asset policy.

As of Thursday, Protect Progress PAC reported spending more than $2 million on broadcast and digital media related to the Michigan Democratic primary between Rep. Shri Thanedar and challenger Donavan McKinney. The latest filing reflected a rapid acceleration from the amount the PAC reported just a week earlier, including nearly $884,240 in additional ad buys supporting Thanedar and more than $150,000 aimed at opposing McKinney.

Key takeaways

• Protect Progress PAC reported over $2 million in media spending tied to Michigan’s 13th District Democratic primary, based on FEC filings as of Thursday.
• New filings nearly doubled prior reported spend, adding $884,240 for Thanedar and more than $150,000 to oppose McKinney.
• The spending is connected to crypto-aligned political groups, with Protect Progress described as an affiliate of Fairshake.
• Thanedar’s record includes crypto-related legislative actions, including support for stablecoin and digital asset market structure proposals.
• Fairshake affiliates are active in multiple primaries, including races in Washington and Alabama ahead of their own election dates.

Michigan primary: Protect Progress ramps up ad buys

FEC documents show Protect Progress PAC has concentrated its spending on one of the most closely watched parts of this election cycle for crypto industry-aligned political efforts: candidate positioning around digital-asset legislation. In Michigan’s 13th district, the committee’s ad spending is designed to back incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar while targeting his Democratic primary opponent, Donavan McKinney.

The latest filing effectively widened the committee’s footprint compared with what it had reported in an earlier submission. It added $884,240 in media expenditures supporting Thanedar and more than $150,000 opposing McKinney, bringing total reported media spend to over $2 million.

FEC filings are available through the committee’s FEC record: FEC document inquiry.

Why Thanedar’s crypto record mattered to the PAC

Protect Progress’s focus on Thanedar aligns with the incumbent’s legislative record on digital-asset issues. During his time in the U.S. House, Thanedar voted in favor of stablecoin-focused legislation known as the GENIUS Act. He also voted in favor of a crypto market structure proposal currently under consideration in the Senate, the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.

In addition, Thanedar cosponsored the Promoting Innovation in Blockchain Development Act, an effort aimed at protecting blockchain developers. For PAC-affiliated political spending, these votes and sponsorships are often treated as concrete signals of candidate alignment—especially as CLARITY work advances through Congress.

McKinney’s campaign challenged the premise that the race is driven solely by local issues. In a July 21 statement related to the PAC’s spending, McKinney argued that “the crypto lobby is paying my opponent back” for his support of policy decisions tied to the Trump administration.

McKinney also referenced President Donald Trump’s disclosures that he earned more than $1.4 billion from crypto investments in 2025, including through his memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), and via his family’s business, World Liberty Financial. Democrats have frequently accused the Trump administration of profiting from its position through laws affecting the crypto sector, including proposals like GENIUS. (Those claims are linked in the original reporting to Trump’s disclosed earnings and related coverage.)

Fairshake affiliates keep spending across the election map

Protect Progress is described as an affiliate of the Fairshake PAC. Fairshake and related committees have been a major force in U.S. federal elections in recent cycles, channeling large sums toward candidates seen as supportive of crypto-industry aligned policy.

Earlier reporting cited that Fairshake was responsible for more than $170 million in spending during the 2024 election cycle through media supporting candidates it viewed as favorable to crypto policy. The same reporting framework also noted that Protect Progress and other affiliates had already directed millions of dollars into 2026 races in multiple states.

More broadly, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen reported in June that Fairshake and its affiliates accounted for spending of more than $82 million out of roughly $189 million that crypto companies used across the 2026 election cycle. Public Citizen also reported Fairshake’s claimed war chest of $193 million as of January, underscoring the scale of activity behind affiliate PAC machinery.

More primaries: Washington and Alabama spotlight additional spending

While Michigan remains a focal point, other Fairshake affiliates have also targeted races as primaries approach. In Washington’s 4th congressional district, the Fairshake affiliate Defend American Jobs PAC spent more than $65,000 on media to support a Republican candidate. Washington’s primary is scheduled for the same day as Michigan’s.

Alabama’s primary, set for Aug. 11, has similarly attracted attention from Fairshake affiliates. FEC filings indicate Defend American Jobs spent more than $511,000 on media supporting Jerry Carl Jr., a Republican who served in Alabama’s 1st congressional district from 2021 to 2025.

One additional datapoint in the reporting around the Alabama race is the scale of the candidate’s personal wealth. The original article referenced a reported net worth figure of up to $15 million in 2023, citing a separate local report.

What to watch next in crypto-linked elections

As PAC affiliate spending continues to surge in primary contests, voters and market participants will likely watch whether crypto-aligned policy commitments translate into measurable legislative momentum—particularly on stablecoin and market-structure proposals such as GENIUS and CLARITY. The next FEC disclosures may clarify how much more media time these committees add as voting dates approach.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has paused Nasdaq’s approval of cash-settled bitcoin index options and will reconsider the decision following a legal challenge from CME Group, the agency said in an order released for public inspection on July 31.

Back in May, the SEC granted Nasdaq PHLX conditional approval to list cash-settled bitcoin index options under the ticker QBTC. The product still required exemptions from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) before it could launch.

CME Group challenged the approval in June, arguing that bitcoin is a commodity and, as such, options tied directly to its value fall under the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction rather than the SEC’s.

If the CME is right, the SEC would have no authority to approve QBTC, and Nasdaq would need to register as a CFTC-regulated futures or swaps venue, or redesign the contracts to track a security such as a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

The CME already operates regulated bitcoin futures and options markets, while Nasdaq’s QBTC would compete for the same trading activity without Nasdaq registering under the CFTC framework that governs the CME.

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has fallen below its year-earlier level for only the second time in the network’s history as weak mining economics and the shift toward artificial intelligence weigh on capacity growth.

The metric, which measures how difficult it is to mine a Bitcoin block, is now at 126.23 trillion after falling 0.74%, about 1.1% below the 127.62 trillion reached a year earlier and 19.1% from the 155.97 trillion all-time high seen in November 2025.

Difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks, to keep Bitcoin’s average block time near 10 minutes. Falling difficulty indicates that less computing power was competing during the previous adjustment period, while reducing competition for miners that remain online.

The metric has dropped about 14% from its January peak, reached this year, following declines of 10% in June and 5% earlier in July, according to network data.

The only previous year-over-year decline was after China’s 2021 mining ban, which temporarily removed roughly half of the network’s computing power. Difficulty recovered as miners relocated to other regions.

This time around, the plunge is more mining economics-based.

For years, stablecoins have been marketed as crypto’s breakthrough application for cross-border payments, promising near-instant transfers at a fraction of the cost charged by traditional remittance providers.

Sending USDC across a blockchain may indeed cost only a few cents but a new study from the Bank of Italy suggests that isn’t what most people actually pay when they send money home.

In a mystery-shopping exercise spanning 10 international remittance corridors, researchers found that stablecoin-based transfers were not systematically cheaper than conventional money transfer operators once the full journey, from bank account to crypto wallet and back into local currency, was taken into account.

The study, published as Markets, Infrastructures and Payment Systems Paper No. 86, tracked transfers of 200 USDC from Italy to destinations including Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the UAE and Japan.

End-to-end costs varied dramatically, ranging from roughly 0.3% to almost 9% of the value transferred depending on the corridor and service providers used. Settlement times also differed widely, from around 20 minutes where domestic instant payment systems supported withdrawals to as long as two business days when recipients relied on conventional bank transfers.

Blind spots

A central bank highlighting shortcoming in the promises that stablecoins may make is in some ways to be expected. Traditional financial (TradFi) institutions may have a vested interest in undermining adoption of stablecoins – digital tokens pegged to fiat currencies. Digital currencies and blockchain were designed to remove much of the need for intermediaries, such as central banks, after all.

An affiliate of a political action committee (PAC) funded largely by contributions from cryptocurrency companies Ripple Labs and Coinbase has poured more cash into ads for next week’s primary race in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District.

According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings as of Thursday, the Protect Progress PAC had spent more than a combined $2 million on media to support Michigan Representative Shri Thanedar in the state’s 13th district and oppose his Democratic challenger, Donavan McKinney. 

The most recent filings effectively doubled what the PAC had reported spending a week prior, with an additional $884,240 on ads to support Thanedar and more than $150,000 to oppose McKinney.

Source: FEC

During his time in the US House of Representatives, Thanedar voted in favor of the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act legislation and the crypto market structure bill currently under consideration in the Senate, the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. He also cosponsored the Promoting Innovation in Blockchain Development Act in an effort to protect developers. 

In a July 21 statement on the PAC spending supporting Thanedar, McKinney said “the crypto lobby is paying my opponent back for helping Trump make over $1 billion since taking office.” He was likely referring to the US President disclosing that he earned more than $1.4 billion from crypto investments in 2025, including from his memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP) and through his family’s business, World Liberty Financial. Many Democrats have accused Trump of using his position to profit from the presidency through laws like GENIUS.

Cointelegraph reached out to Thanedar’s and McKinney’s campaigns for comment on the PAC expenditures but did not receive an immediate response.

Related: US senators sent revised ethics rules to White House for CLARITY Act: Report

Protect Progress is an affiliate of the Fairshake PAC, which was responsible for spending more than $170 million in the 2024 US election cycle through media supporting candidates it considered favoring crypto industry-aligned policies. The Michigan primary is scheduled for Tuesday, but the PAC and its affiliates have already poured millions of dollars into 2026 races in Texas, Illinois and other states.

The US consumer advocacy group Public Citizen reported in June that Fairshake and its affiliates were responsible for spending more than $82 million out of the roughly $189 million crypto companies had used in the 2026 election cycle. Fairshake reported holding a $193 million war chest as of January.

PAC spending in Washington and Alabama with primaries looming

In addition to Michigan’s primaries, the Fairshake affiliate Defend American Jobs PAC spent more than $65,000 on media to support a Republican running in Washington’s 4th congressional, according to FEC filings. Washington is scheduled to hold primaries the same day as Michigan.

Alabama, scheduled to hold primaries on Aug. 11, has also been a focus for Fairshake. FEC filings showed that Defend American Jobs spent more than $511,000 on media to support Jerry Carl Jr., a Republican who represented the state’s 1st congressional district from 2021 to 2025. Notably, the former Alabama lawmaker was one of the wealthiest in the state’s House delegation, with a reported net worth of up to $15 million in 2023.

Magazine: Crypto lobby spending on Republicans far outpaces Democratic support