SAN FRANCISCO — For months, crypto companies and their executives have been pouring tens of millions of dollars into Donald Trump’s effort to win the White House. Chris Larsen isn’t one of them.

The co-founder and chairman of Ripple recently contributed $1 million worth of XRP tokens, the currency created by Ripple in 2012, to Future Forward, a super PAC that’s supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.

Larsen, who’s backed candidates across the aisle for the last few years, told CNBC in an interview on Monday that his comfort level with Harris comes from conversations he’s had with people inside the campaign and what he’s seen from the vice president since she replaced President Biden at the top of the ticket in July.

It helps that Harris is from the Bay Area.

“She knows people who have grown up in the innovation economy her whole life,” Larsen said. “So I think she gets it at a fundamental level, in a way that I think the Biden folks were just not paying attention to, or maybe just didn’t make the connection between empowering workers and making sure you have American champions dominating their industries.”

Larsen’s affection for the Democratic nominee isn’t brand new. In February, he gave the maximum personal contribution of $6,600 to Harris (which would cover the primary and general election), about five months before she became the Democratic presidential nominee, FEC filings show. At the same time, he contributed $100,000 to the Harris Action Fund PAC.

In total, Larsen has given around $1.9 million to support Harris’ campaign directly and through PACs, according to FEC data compiled by crypto market and blockchain analyst James Delmore and independently verified by CNBC.

Larsen, 64, has a net worth of $3.1 billion, according to Forbes, primarily from his ownership of XRP and involvement in Ripple, which provides blockchain technology for financial services companies.

He’s part of an industry that’s become suddenly prominent in political fundraising, though more heavily in support of Republicans. Nearly half of all the corporate money flowing into the election has come from the crypto industry, according to a recent report from the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen.

The sum was raised from a mix of contributors, with Coinbase, Ripple, and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz accounting for most of those business donations. The industry has raised roughly 13 times the amount it brought in during the last presidential election year.

Close to two-thirds of crypto contributions have gone either to supporting Republicans or opposing Democrats, according to Delmore’s compilation of FEC data. Trump has received more than $4 million in virtual tokens, an FEC filing shows, and in July, the ex-president keynoted a major bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

Larsen’s recent contributions include $1 million to Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in December, and almost $7,000 in February to John Deaton, the Massachusetts Republican who’s taking on Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a vocal crypto critic. He also donated $250,000 in 2022 to the Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund and contributed to a pro-Biden PAC in 2020.

Larsen told CNBC that he’s “really confident” that Harris will bring a “more pragmatic approach and clear rules” to the crypto industry, in contrast to the current situation with Gary Gensler running the SEC. Gensler’s open hostility towards much of the crypto industry and his aggressive crackdowns on companies, including Ripple, is a big reason why many in the space say they’re supporting Trump.

In January, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who has also donated to members of both parties, called Gensler a “political liability.”

“What we’ve had to date has been almost like purposeful chaos by Gensler to kind of crush the domestic industry,” Larsen said. That “has only empowered sketchier foreign operations. It just doesn’t make any sense,” he said, adding that “Gensler must be the most unpopular person in Washington, D.C.”

CNBC reached out to Gensler’s office for comment and didn’t hear back.

Ripple’s legal chief said in June that the company has spent over $100 million on litigation to defend itself against civil charges brought by the SEC. In 2020, before Biden took office, the SEC accused Ripple, Garlinghouse and Larsen of violating securities laws by acting as unregistered brokers of digital currency tokens, which the SEC regulates as securities. The SEC later dismissed the charges against the two Ripple executives, and the company has denied it broke securities laws. They remain in active litigation.

Earlier this month, the agency filed a notice of appeal in its multi-year case with the Ripple.

Ripple has given about $50 million to the pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake, which has been contributing to candidates up and down the ballot, and on both sides of the aisle.

Harris has been gaining momentum within the crypto community.

Two days after Biden dropped out of the race, Marvin Ammori, legal chief at decentralized exchanged Uniswap, gave money to the Harris Action Fund. Uniswap is also battling claims it violated U.S. securities laws.

Skybridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci, who spent 11 days as White House communications director under Trump, has given more than $36,000 to two PACs supporting the Democratic nominee. Scaramucci says he’s among a group of crypto advocates working with Harris to develop her campaign’s policies on digital assets and to help the vice president distance the Democrats from Sen. Warren.

And then there’s venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, who maintains a sizable portfolio of crypto companies. The Andreessen Horowitz co-founder and his partner Marc Andreessen said in July they were planning to make significant donations to PACs supporting Trump’s run for president due to what they characterized as his friendliness to the “little tech agenda.”

That was when Biden was the nominee. By early October, Horowitz appeared to have had a change of heart. He told employees at his firm that he would be making a “significant” personal contribution to Harris’ election bid. Horowitz said that he and his wife, Felicia, “have known Vice President Harris for over 10 years and she has been a great friend to both of us during that time.”

A couple weeks earlier, in late September, Harris finally gave a nod to cryptocurrency in a public address.

“We will encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets while protecting our consumers and investors,” she said at a $27 million fundraiser in New York.

On Monday, the Harris campaign unveiled its “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” in a report. The plan explicitly mentions creating a framework for cryptocurrency in the U.S. designed to safeguard those assets. The campaign said more than 20% of Black Americans own or have owned digital currencies.

Despite Larsen’s track record of donating to Democrats, he took heat on social media after his latest contribution was reported on CNBC on Friday.

“The Ripple community and even the crypto community in general has a lot of skepticism toward Kamala’s candidacy and what policies she would put into place,” Delmore said, reflecting much of the online sentiment

Larsen blew off the criticism, and said he doesn’t pay attention to social media.

WATCH: Trump launches new crypto venture

Crude oil futures fell more than 4% on Tuesday, as a looming global oil surplus next year overshadowed the risk of a supply disruption from the conflict between Israel and Iran.

Oil prices spiked earlier this month after Iran hit Israel with a ballistic missile attack, raising fears that Israel would respond by targeting the Islamic Republic’s oil facilities.

The International Energy Agency said Tuesday that its members are prepared to take action if there is a supply disruption in the Middle East.

“For now, supply keeps flowing, and in the absence of a major disruption, the market is faced with a sizeable surplus in the new year,” the IEA said in its monthly report.

Here are today’s energy prices around 5:30 am ET:

• West Texas Intermediate November contract: $70.28 per barrel, down $3.55, or 4.9%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil has fallen 2%.
• Brent December contract: $73.81 per barrel, down $3.65, or 4.8%. Year to date, the global benchmark has declined about 4%.
• RBOB Gasoline November contract:  $2.0197 per gallon, down 4.2%. Year to date, gasoline has pulled back nearly 4%.
• Natural Gas November contract: $2.465 per thousand cubic feet, down 1.16%. Year to date, gas has fallen nearly 2%.

World oil demand is expected to grow by just under 900,000 barrels per day in 2024 and 1 million bpd in 2025, a significant slowdown compared to growth of 2 million bpd in post-pandemic period, according to the IEA.

Chinese oil demand is particularly weak, with consumption dropping by 500,000 bpd in August, the fourth monthly decline in a row, according to the agency. Meanwhile, crude production in the Americas, led by the U.S., is poised to grow by 1.5 million bpd this year and next, the IEA said.

OPEC has cut its oil 2024 forecast for the third consecutive month in a row.

With shares of his nascent social media business in the midst of a sharp rebound and with just three weeks until the presidential election, Donald Trump is bringing his latest proposed money-making endeavor to market, this time in crypto.

On Tuesday, the former president and current Republican nominee aims to launch WLFI, the token accompanying his new crypto project called World Liberty Financial. Over the weekend, Trump pumped the sale in a post on X, telling his followers that it’s a “chance to help shape the future of finance.”

Prospective investors can be forgiven for having little idea about what they’re being asked to support.

People involved with WLF have described it as a sort of crypto bank, where customers will be encouraged to borrow, lend and invest in crypto. No official white paper or formal business plan has been released to the public, and about all that’s been disclosed is that investing in the project will give users voting rights over the yet-to-be-launched WLF platform.

In a roadmap given to prospective investors that was first viewed by The Block, the WLF proposal says the coin is looking to raise $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in its initial sale. CNBC reached out to WLF for comment but didn’t hear back.

World Liberty Financial is separate and apart from Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of social media platform Truth Social. Trump Media, known by ticker symbol DJT, started trading in March, after going public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). It’s been a rocky road for the stock, which peaked at close to $80 in late March, before falling all the way down to $12.15 last month.

But since bottoming on Sept. 23, DJT shares are up close to 150% at $29.95, giving the company a market cap of $6 billion. That’s on revenue of less than $1 million a quarter and after the company lost more than $16 million in the latest period.

While DJT shares can be purchased by anyone, the digital coin WLFI will be a Regulation D token offering, following a provision that makes it possible to raise capital without first registering a security with the SEC. Certain conditions must be met, such as limiting the size of the sale and restricting it to accredited investors, defined in part as having a net worth of over $1 million.

Trump owns about 57% of DJT’s outstanding shares, but his potential control over World Liberty Financial is more opaque. WLF’s website, which is currently a landing page to register for know-your-customer verification to buy the coin, includes some of the fine print that indicates the financial incentive for the founders.

Co-founder Zachary Folkman, who previously had a company called Date Hotter Girls and reportedly helped develop crypto project Dough Finance, has said that 20% of WLF’s tokens would be allotted to the founding team, which includes the Trump family.

And there appears to be another way they can make money.

“DT Marks DEFI, LLC and its affiliates including Donald J. Trump and his family members has or may receive tokens from World Liberty Financial, and will be entitled to receive significant fees for services provided to World Liberty Financial, which amount cannot yet be determined,” the website says.

On Monday, less than 24 hours before the planned token launch, the WLF team convened a conversation on X Spaces to share details of the sale. About 12,000 people tuned in to listen to the more than hourlong chat about the overarching goals of the project.

Folkman reiterated what he said in a prior Spaces event, telling attendees that WLFI is a governance token that allows holders to vote on decisions regarding the protocol, including initiatives like promotional partnerships. He said token ownership “isn’t equity” and “doesn’t represent economic right.”

Folkman said the token sale will exclusively take place on World Liberty’s website, and that only those who had been whitelisted after signing up will be able to participate. He said “well over 100,000 people” are on the whitelist and that it’s not too late to register. Folkman added that WLF would publish the “long-awaited” roadmap for the project on Tuesday, in tandem with the token sale.

Last week, WLF began the process of getting its crypto bank approved by the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem known as Aave.

Aave is open source and, in DeFi, is one of the longest-running and most-trusted crypto lending platforms.

“The protocol itself is permissionless, so I’m kind of less opinionated about integrations, because that’s the whole idea of decentralized finance,” Aave founder Stani Kulechov told CNBC in an interview at the Permissionless Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Kulechov joined Monday’s X event and said he’s “excited that WLF is using and relying on” Aave.

‘”That’s a strong signal that what we build is fairly useful, so we’re super excited,” he said.

In a 400-word post to Aave’s governance forum, the WLF team presented a brief outline of its objectives, which include promoting “DeFi to a wider audience through its marketing efforts,” and introducing “a new class of users to over-collateralized borrowing and lending.” The proposal is currently at the preliminary stage of consideration known as “Temp Check,” and Aave’s users are able to comment on the plan.

In the comments section, a number of users raised concern over the project’s deep ties to the Trump family.

“I believe this proposal poses significant risk to the Aave protocol for little gain,” according to one comment that’s since been deleted. The commenter then questioned the rationale of having “the largest and most trusted protocol in DeFi” working with a group led “by people of questionable backgrounds … including several convicted criminals.”

Folkman helped start WLF with long-time business partner Chase Herro. CoinDesk reported that the pair previously worked on Dough Finance, which was also built on top of Aave and suffered a $2 million hack in July. Herro also launched another crypto trading business a decade ago called Pacer Capital, which appears to now be defunct.

For World Liberty to proceed, it must pass multiple rounds of consideration and approval, each decided by a vote among existing AAVE token holders.

At this stage in the process, the token sale is akin to an IOU. Those who buy in now have a claim to the token if and when the platform is approved and launched.

WATCH: Crypto warms to Kamala Harris