The World’s Richest Crypto Billionaire, Who Donated To Biden, Is Now Giving To Republican…

Last year, at age 28, crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried made waves by shelling out $5 million to a super-PAC supporting Joe Biden, making him one of the biggest backers of America’s future president. 

But this year, he’s made it clear that he’s not all-in for Democrats. Bankman-Fried has donated to six Senate Republicans and four Senate Democrats, including Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who has recently made headlines for opposing Biden’s clean-energy program and Democrats’ plans for voting-rights and filibuster reforms.

Since July, Bankman-Fried has made $5,800 contributions, the maximum individuals can give directly to Congressional campaigns, to the committees of Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Richard Burr, the North Carolina Republican who announced plans to retire at the end of his term in 2023. Bankman-Fried also donated $5,800 to Democratic Senators Patty Murray (Wash.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.) and Manchin. When reached, Bankman-Fried said he did not want to comment on specific donations.

The crypto king is hardly the only billionaire donor to support both Biden and Republicans on Capitol Hill. Former Facebook president Sean Parker, who gave $620,600 to Biden, also donated to the campaigns of Collins and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) in 2020. Len Blavatnik gave $52,800 to Biden in 2020, but he also contributed $150,000 to a joint-fundraising committee of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) the same year. 

Bankman-Fried joined the Forbes 400 as the richest self-made newcomer in list history this year. He’s now worth an estimated $26.5 billion. He got rich thanks to a crypto exchange called FTX and a trading firm named Alameda Research. Most of his fortune is concentrated in shares of FTX and a portion of its FTT tokens. He has said that he plans to one day give away his entire fortune.