Crypto's biggest political spender is turning up the pressure on one of the industry's fiercest critics. Fairshake, the super PAC network funded by some of the sector's largest companies, has reported fresh spending to defeat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, pushing its total outlay against the former Senate Banking Committee chairman to roughly $46.66 million—making the Ohio Democrat the industry's most expensive target of the 2026 election cycle.

According to a filing with the Federal Election Commission signed Oct. 15, Defend American Jobs—the Fairshake affiliate that spends in Republican-friendly races—disclosed a $5.2 million media buy opposing Brown, followed days later by another purchase of roughly $1.95 million, along with additional media-production costs. The filing lists Brown's calendar-year-to-date total at about $46.66 million, cementing the Ohio contest as the priciest target of the crypto industry's 2026 campaign. As a super PAC, Fairshake may accept unlimited contributions and spend them independently of candidate campaigns—the structure that allows a single outside group to dominate spending in one race.

The same filing showed parallel spending supporting Brown's Republican opponent, Jon Husted, who inherited the seat after being appointed last year.

The sums dwarf what Fairshake is deploying elsewhere, underscoring how personal the Ohio race has become for the industry. The PAC earlier signaled plans to spend at least $30 million against Brown—a figure the latest filing shows it has already blown past.

Brown, a longtime crypto skeptic, chaired the Senate Banking Committee before losing his seat in 2024, a defeat Fairshake spent roughly $40 million to help engineer. A return to the Senate would hand crypto skeptics a powerful voice on the Banking Committee—the same perch from which he stalled market-structure legislation. With the Clarity Act already through the House but stalled in the Senate, the Ohio contest is among the races that will shape the composition of the chamber weighing that bill.

The renewed Senate blitz came days after Fairshake broadened its map to the House. On Oct. 5, the PAC network announced it would back 32 House incumbents—19 Republicans and 13 Democrats—framing itself as an issue-focused group that supports "pro-crypto candidates who support American innovation in both parties."

It committed an initial $6 million, or $1 million each, to six of those lawmakers: Republicans French Hill, Bill Huizenga and Bryan Steil, and Democrats Janelle Bynum, Steven Horsford and Derek Tran. All 32 endorsed incumbents voted to advance the Clarity Act when it passed the House in July 2025.

Fairshake, funded largely by Coinbase, Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz, entered September with roughly $120 million in cash and is expected to spend more than $100 million across House and Senate races this cycle. Its push runs alongside Stand With Crypto, the Coinbase-backed advocacy group that has rolled out its own slate of midterm endorsements.

The spending reflects the industry's hardened resolve after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate, channeling its considerable war chest into reshaping the Congress that will decide crypto's rules. With the midterms still months away, upcoming FEC filings will show how much more of the network's cash flows into Ohio versus the House races it has adopted.