Democrats are hoping to re-engage voters and donors who support cryptocurrencies by launching a new digital asset fundraising platform after their crushing defeat in the 2024 US presidential election.
BlueVault, a crypto fundraising service for Democratic political committees, launched on Monday, allowing campaigns to accept donations in Bitcoin and stablecoins.
BlueVault founder Will Schweitzer said the launch reflects growing concern among Democrats that crypto-native voters, despite being politically mixed, are drifting toward the Republican Party primarily due to a lack of messaging to get them interested.
“I believe strongly in cryptocurrencies. This is the second company in the industry, and I have been working in this space for almost 10 years. I also believe deeply in the Democratic platform,” Schweitzer said. decryption In an interview. “I am looking at the data and what we have learned about crypto voters and donors during the 2024 cycle.”
Schweitzer said he focused on curating that data for use by the left and finding organic and authentic ways to connect with progressives on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
“In 2020, the ratio of crypto donors to voters went roughly 60-40 in favor of Democrats. By 2024, it will likely be closer to 80-20,” he said. “On a political level, we find that these voters and donors tend to go where there is policy alignment.”
Schweitzer, an Army veteran who organized the Crypto4Harris coalition in 2024, framed BlueVault as an extension of traditional Democratic organizations. BlueVault aims to differentiate itself from FairShake, the crypto superpack that funded Republican campaigns in the last election, by supporting small-dollar fundraising events and direct engagement.
“It’s important to provide the infrastructure to connect grassroots donors to campaigns and do it at scale in a way that everyone is comfortable with,” Schweitzer said.
Schweitzer said the timing of the launch was driven by political momentum around regulatory clarity. He noted that the passage of the GENIUS Act last summer was a turning point that enabled the creation of a compliant crypto payment system for campaigns under Federal Election Commission rules.
Discussion about cryptocurrencies
BlueVault’s debut also comes amid a long-running debate within the Democratic Party over crypto regulation, largely shaped by Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Warren has emerged as one of the party’s most prominent critics of digital assets, repeatedly warning that the industry enables illegal financing, puts consumers at risk and poses national security concerns.
“This was a perfect fit for her work at the CFPB. This is the kind of problem where she’s willing to bite into fraud wherever it appears, and that surfaced with cryptocurrencies,” Schweitzer said. “After Sam Bankman Fried pulled the rug out from under so many people, no one was willing to defend the Democratic space. She became the most vocal voice on the issue, although most people passively aligned with her.”
Schweitzer argued that this persistent skepticism, combined with enforcement actions by then-SEC Chairman Gary Gensler and a lack of coordinated response by Democrats after the collapse of FTX, allowed Republicans to turn crypto into a partisan issue. There were hopes that President Joe Biden’s departure would help Democrats win back crypto supporters, but the Harris campaign’s late efforts failed to gain traction.
Although it failed to woo crypto enthusiasts in 2024, BlueVault’s goal is to separate cryptocurrencies from Donald Trump’s political brand, which has embraced the industry both publicly and economically. Schweitzer said the platform’s structure is intended to ensure that Democratic campaigns are not dependent on large corporate crypto donors or politically aligned intermediaries.
Schweitzer said BlueVault supported Bitcoin and USDC at launch, and the choice was driven by legal clarity rather than ideology.
“We are by no means maximalists. We rely on what is legal and the most legally clear assets,” he said. “Campaign finance is a unique field and it is not DeFi. It is a completely different legal system and has a different set of considerations for making cryptocurrencies useful for campaigns beyond just signaling. Money is what campaigns need to produce effective outcomes.”
He said assets could be added over time depending on regulations and donor demand.
The platform allows donors to find and support committees and track donations, while campaigns can create custom donation pages, post video content, monitor donations in real-time, and rely on automated FEC reporting. Schweitzer declined to say who is backing BlueVault, but said the project will integrate “exclusively with federally regulated crypto custody and payment rail providers.”
As Democrats prepare for the 2026 midterm elections, BlueVault is betting that by giving campaigns a way to collect crypto donations, they can win elections and bring back crypto voters.
“We give donors and people who want to participate in the political space the ability to do so without a centralized organization dictating how to do it or relying on standard cryptocurrency groups to provide talking points. This is a new way to participate,” Schweitzer said.
