Trump-Loving Crypto Super PAC Backs Torres in Primary

A crypto super PAC that once praised President Donald Trump and backed an all-Republican slate of candidates is now throwing its weight behind New York Rep. Ritchie Torres. The Fellowship PAC dropped $300,000 on Monday to boost Torres in the final days of his

On Monday, the crypto super PAC Fellowship PAC made a move that would have seemed improbable just months ago: it put real money behind a Democrat.

The group dropped $300,000 to boost New York Rep. Ritchie Torres in the final days of his reelection primary campaign. funneling its ad spending through Nxum Group. a firm co-founded by Bo Hines. Hines previously served as the executive director of Trump’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets last year and is listed as co-founder of the media-buy firm.

Torres is not expected to face serious opposition in the June 23 primary in New York. The sole public poll of the race put him far ahead of his leading opponent, former Democratic National Committee vice chair Michael Blake.

Neither Torres, Fellowship PAC, nor Blake immediately responded to requests for comment.

The Fellowship PAC’s shift is also tied to its financial backbone. Its largest funder is Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment bank helmed by the sons of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Cantor Fitzgerald has provided $10 million to the Fellowship PAC. and Lutnick stepped down as the head of the banking firm and divested his assets to join the Cabinet.

Fellowship PAC has spent in a way that signals an insistence on message over direct campaign support: it spends on ads rather than giving directly to campaigns. In recent weeks. the PAC put Torres’s picture on its endorsement page. and it previously endorsed other candidates including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, R-Texas, in their Senate races.

Torres’s ties to the crypto world help explain why the PAC might see him as a fit even as it breaks with its earlier pattern. He is a member of the key House Committee on Financial Services and has been one of the industry’s most vocal Democratic supporters. Torres is also a co-founder of the Congressional Crypto Caucus.

Still, the intervention carries a jolt of surprise. In coverage of the PAC’s creation. the New York Times described Fellowship PAC as “more aligned with the Republican Party and President Trump than Fairshake. which is the dominant. pro-crypto super PAC.” When the Fellowship PAC was announced in September. it praised Trump for putting “America on the path to become the global crypto capital.”.

That language now sits alongside the June 23 primary reality: the party map that determines who wins power after midterm elections has shifted, and the incentives around crypto influence appear to have shifted with it.

The money for Torres isn’t coming from only one direction. Protect Progress, affiliated with the major crypto super PAC Fairshake, has spent nearly $1.4 million in advertising to buoy the Bronx Democrat.

The two super PACs are aligned with different factions of the crypto industry. Fellowship PAC’s chair is the vice president of regulatory affairs for Tether. the stablecoin company trying to break into the U.S. market after years of scrutiny tied to concerns about its use by money launderers, including terror groups.

Although Tether has not donated directly to the Fellowship PAC, Cantor Fitzgerald—whose executives include Lutnick’s sons—has been identified as a key source of funding.

The spending details also sketch how crypto politics is running on specialized operators. The media buy for Torres through Nxum Group was made via a firm co-founded by Bo Hines, who is CEO of Tether U.S., the American division of the El Salvador-based company.

Protect Progress and Fairshake, meanwhile, have been funded by the crypto exchange Coinbase and the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Fairshake and its affiliates have spent money on both sides of the aisle, and in 2024 they were criticized for helping tip the Senate in favor of Republicans.

Taken together, the Fellowship PAC’s endorsement of Torres lands less like a pure political pivot and more like a bet that crypto-aligned Democrats can be just as valuable as Republican allies—especially when the race is one where Torres is already positioned to cruise through.

Fellowship PAC Ritchie Torres crypto super PAC Cantor Fitzgerald Tether Nxum Group Bo Hines Protect Progress Fairshake Coinbase Andreessen Horowitz June 23 primary Michael Blake