Common Questions

Why is the FEC failing to disclose crypto PAC spending in 2026?

The FEC only requires periodic filings, not real-time disclosure. Fellowship PAC claimed $100 million raised while its filings showed $0, then finally reported $11 million on 15 April 2026, still $89 million short of its public claim.Source: Lowdown

What is the NRSC v FEC Supreme Court case about?

NRSC v. FEC challenged federal limits on party-candidate coordinated campaign spending as a First Amendment violation. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in the NRSC's favour on 30 June 2026, striking the caps for the rest of the cycle.Source: Lowdown

Did Ripple pay for favourable crypto legislation in the Senate?

The original timing-based donation claim could not be independently reverified and has been withdrawn. The confirmed disclosure gap in the 2026 cycle involves Fairshake's $59 million shortfall against its own claims and Fellowship PAC's $89 million unaccounted for, per FEC filings.Source: Lowdown

Background

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is the independent regulatory agency responsible for enforcing US campaign finance law, including disclosure requirements, contribution limits, and spending coordination rules. It was created by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974 following the Watergate scandal and operates with six commissioners, requiring four votes for most enforcement actions, a structure that has historically produced deadlock along partisan lines.

In the 2026 cycle, the FEC has been at the centre of a run of crypto-money disclosure gaps. Fairshake, the dominant crypto super PAC, reported $134 million in total receipts for the cycle against the $193 million it had earlier claimed, a $59 million shortfall FEC filings could not account for. Fellowship PAC's own filings showed $0 in receipts against a public claim of $100 million raised; when it finally filed on 15 April, it disclosed just $11 million, leaving $89 million of the claimed war chest still unsupported by federal records.

The FEC's own regulatory reach narrowed further on 30 June 2026, when the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in NRSC v. FEC that the agency's limits on coordinated party-candidate spending violate the First Amendment, striking the caps for the rest of the cycle. The ruling immediately reshaped party fundraising architecture: the NRSC told campaigns on 30 June it would fold its independent-expenditure unit into fully coordinated buys, and analysts describe the ruling as spawning a joint-fundraising-committee model now available to all four national party committees, letting them move money to candidates in unlimited, direct coordination rather than through arm's-length independent-expenditure units. Combined with the unresolved crypto-PAC disclosure gaps, campaign finance observers describe the 2026 cycle as operating with the weakest enforcement and disclosure regime since pre-Watergate.