Crypto’s bipartisan image fades as Winklevoss brothers go MAGA

The Winklevoss twins are playing with political ￰0￱ started as a techie rebellion has become a full-blown right-wing pivot that’s cracking open the crypto industry’s carefully-built political neutrality in ￰1￱ since Trump announced that he was pro-crypto on the campaign trail last year, the twins quickly turned ￰2￱ and Cameron Winklevoss, known mostly for their Harvard feud with Mark Zuck, have gone all-in on Trump. They’re now major influencers inside the GOP, pushing appointments, sabotaging nominations, and deciding what crypto’s image is gonna be on the ￰3￱ and Cam’s influence was on full display in July when Trump, after a private chat with the brothers, pulled his nominee for CFTC ￰4￱ nominee, Brian Quintenz, was seen as a solid pick across party lines, but not MAGA enough for the ￰5￱ refusal to “atone” for past regulatory action against Gemini, their crypto exchange, didn’t sit well, as Cryptopolitan widely reported.

Crypto’s bipartisan mask is slipping Until now, the crypto world has tried to play both ￰6￱ may have hit the sector hard with regulations, but bipartisanship was always the ￰7￱ way, no matter who controls Congress, crypto has a seat at the ￰8￱ the Winklevoss twins gave $1 million each in bitcoin to Trump, backed pro-Trump PACs, and steered over $5 million in donations solely to Republicans this ￰9￱ new favorite toy is the Digital Freedom Fund PAC, a MAGA-friendly vehicle they’re using to bankroll Trump’s crypto ￰10￱ and Cam used to support Democrats, by the way, specifically in 2018 when all their political cash literally went to the ￰11￱ in the 2024 cycle, they sprinkled donations across both parties, contributing to Fairshake, a major bipartisan crypto super ￰12￱ anymore.

They’ve ghosted Fairshake, even as it loads up with another $140 million for 2026, and now they’re running their own shop, picking ideological loyalty over broader ￰13￱ I mean, the Biden administration did take a hammer to ￰14￱ twins’ company, Gemini, got slapped with lawsuits from the SEC and the ￰15￱ paid $5 million to settle one of ￰16￱ crackdown pissed them off, and now they’re firing back, dollar by ￰17￱ while Trump is grinning, the rest of the industry is ￰18￱ one wants to be tagged a Republican project when Congress needs both sides to pass real crypto ￰19￱ inside and outside the party Some Republicans are ￰20￱ like ￰21￱ Lummis have been cozying up to the Winklevoss twins, even consulting them on ￰22￱ doesn’t hide her belief that Democrats have done little to help the crypto ￰23￱ not everyone’s ￰24￱ Democratic ￰25￱ Nickel called out the dangerous tilt, warning that crypto becoming a right-wing talking point is a fast track to political ￰26￱ within the industry, people are getting ￰27￱ admit off-record that making crypto a GOP-only issue is a bad ￰28￱ the pendulum swings back to Democrats, and it will, the industry risks getting frozen ￰29￱ of the same Democrats the Winklevoss brothers are ignoring are pushing to shape the next big crypto ￰30￱ those bridges now could wreck everything the sector has tried to build in D.

C. Still, the twins aren’t slowing ￰31￱ loves them. They’re in his ear, and their checkbook’s always ￰32￱ while most of the crypto crowd is still begging for bipartisan cover, the Winklevoss brothers are writing their own playbook—and dragging the industry into the red along with ￰33￱ your project in front of crypto’s top minds? Feature it in our next industry report, where data meets impact.