Under the Federal Election Campaign Act, the FEC’s restricted contribution limits meant that Petersenwas only able to bank a maximum of $5,400 from a single patron.
“During the current, two-year election cycle, the limit for contributions by individuals to federal candidates for the United States Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives remains $2,700 per election”
This is not the first time the self-proclaimed ‘Bitcoin Candidate’ has had to refuse generous donations, having already turned down 2 similar donations before worth over $250,000 in BTC. He is also not the first federal election candidate to accept Bitcoin for political campaign donations, with reports of Rand Paul accepting BTC during his 2016 Presidential candidacy and before him, Jared Polis back in 2014 during the Congressional campaign.
“Cryptocurrency represents the future of American creativity and American liberty, and I’m delighted to accept campaign donations in this form.” - Petersen.
Adding to his personal forte of crypto-achievements, Petersen also holds the record for receiving the largest single cryptocurrency donation in US history, where one contributor offered the Republican 0.284BTC which equated to $4,500 at the time of transaction. Fortunately this was within the requisite contribution limits and was not required to be given back.
In order to bypass the FEC’s strict contribution limitations, Petersen has urged his donor in the twitter post above to create a Political Action Committee (PAC). PACs are committees set up to raise funding to aid political campaigns, usually by pooling donations from members. They are gifted with a higher contribution limit and in some cases, can fund national party and local party campaigners without restriction.
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