A new report warns of “profound risks” in American politics as cryptocurrency companies increase their political spending and Donald Trump oversees regulatory retreat while promising to create a “crypto strategic reserve”.

The situation “illustrate[s] the profound risks that unchecked corporate political spending presents, particularly within the volatile and often unpredictable cryptocurrency industry”, reads the report, from the Center for Political Accountability (CPA), a non-profit that advocates for corporate political disclosure.

“The aggressive push for deregulation, combined with opaque and unaccountable political contributions, has not only raised red flags among regulators but also eroded investor confidence and public trust in the long-term viability of these companies.”

In the CPA’s definition, cryptocurrency, “often shortened to ‘crypto’, is a monetary technology that emerged in the early 2010s … meant to circumvent traditional central authorities like banks to allow decentralized, peer-to-peer transactions, recorded in heavily encrypted digital ledgers”.

The new report notes that “some public companies active in these fields have begun engaging in substantial political spending at both the national and state level – to the tune of more than $134m during the 2024 election alone”.