But a couple of months ago, there was Bernie Moreno, the pro-crypto Republican candidate for Ohio’s other Senate seat, at a bitcoin convention asking, “Are you sick of these politicians who say bitcoin is for drug dealing and money laundering?” Actually, no: I’m sick of the fact that crypto’s most obvious and ready use is indeed for drug dealing and money laundering, having tried and failed to find significant legal uses.

Yet crypto is marketed as a revolutionary technology, and some of its biggest boosters are among the tech bros who’ve been lurching to the right, so it makes sense to put crypto’s political role in the same basket.

And crypto is playing a big role in the 2024 election. Axios writes that according to an August report from Public Citizen: “The crypto industry accounts for almost half the money contributed by corporations to political action committees so far in 2024.” The Washington Post just reported that in Ohio, the industry has spent more than $US38 million ($55 million) supporting Moreno against the incumbent Democrat, Sherrod Brown.

Why is crypto spending so big? Pretty clearly, the industry fears regulation: Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has argued that crypto assets should be viewed as and regulated like securities — which could damage or even wipe out their value by undermining some of the hype.

Beyond that, a growing share of crypto assets consists of stablecoins, issued by institutions that peg their value in terms of traditional currencies, like US dollars. We have a name, though, for institutions that issue liabilities that they promise to exchange for hard currency on demand: banks. And centuries of experience tell us that banks need to be regulated to ensure financial stability. Even Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, called for bank regulation.

Loading

But stablecoins aren’t regulated like banks, and it’s not clear whether they could compete if they were.

So crypto’s political spending clearly seems motivated by financial self-interest, while the right-wing lurch of other tech bros may — as a Facebook founder, Chris Hughes, put it the other day in the Times — reflect a sense of common cause with Trump, who like them believes that he shouldn’t have to play by the rules. (I’d add that men of great wealth can sometimes be susceptible to conspiracy theories because they are all too often surrounded by people who tell them what they want to hear — and who laugh at their jokes even when they aren’t funny.)

Whatever their motivations, political spending by tech bros could have huge effects on US politics. That Ohio race, by itself, could determine control of the Senate, with enormous impact on federal policy on many fronts.

In short, the tech bro style in American politics has emerged as a major force, one that, in my view, is pushing our democracy closer to catastrophe.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.