FEC filing glitch gives crypto PACs a last-minute disappearing act 🗳️

The US Federal Election Commission’s filing system went offline after the agency’s website was reportedly targeted by a hacker or hackers, potentially obscuring campaign-finance spending in the final days before the 2026 midterm elections. As of Tuesday at 7:48 pm UTC, the FEC said it was continuing to experience an “electronic filing system outage” while working to resolve the issue.

Public campaign-finance data remained available, but the outage could delay reporting of last-minute expenditures. Six days before Election Day, FEC filings showed no expenditures since Sunday from the cryptocurrency industry-aligned Super PACs Fairshake, Defend American Jobs, Protect Progress, Fellowship and Digital Freedom Fund. Cointelegraph reached out to Fairshake for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Super PACs must report certain spending to the FEC within 24 hours of using the funds when expenditures total $1,000 or more. Candidates for House and Senate seats are likewise expected to report contributions of $1,000 or more within 48 hours during the 20 days before an election. An FEC spokesperson told Cointelegraph that its IT staff were “actively working to restore service.”

Digital Freedom Fund, a PAC launched by Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, reported on Sunday that it had spent more than $572,000 on text messages supporting various Republican Senate candidates. The majority went toward supporting Ken Paxton’s campaign in Texas, while Protect Progress’s most recent expenditure before the outage showed more than $50,000 for a direct-mail campaign supporting Representative Aisha Wahab in California’s 14th district.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that the disruption followed an FEC email stating that the website had been targeted by a hacker or hackers. The 2026 midterms could be consequential for cryptocurrency advocates seeking digital-asset legislation at the federal and state levels, after lawmakers in Congress failed to advance a crypto market structure bill in September. Fairshake and other industry advocates subsequently supported the reelection of lawmakers who voted in favor of the legislation.

Crypto PAC spending has already shaped the Ohio Senate race. In 2024, Fairshake spent about $41 million opposing Senator Sherrod Brown’s reelection bid against Republican Bernie Moreno. Brown lost but announced that he would challenge incumbent Jon Husted in 2026, prompting another election backed by crypto-industry spending. Before the outage, Fairshake reported spending $56 million on media to oppose Brown and support Husted, while the Digital Freedom Fund disclosed more than $7 million in expenditures for the same race.