Saikat Chakrabarti — the Stripe founding engineer who spent $10 million of his own money to unseat the Democratic establishment in San Francisco and made targeting "tech oligarchs and crypto billionaires" a centerpiece of his campaign — was eliminated from the race to succeed Nancy Pelosi on June 3, 2026, after Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen funded both the candidate who beat him and a PAC that spent directly against him.
With roughly 50 percent of votes tallied on election night, Democrats Scott Wiener and Connie Chan advanced from California's 11th Congressional District all-party primary, per NBC News. Chakrabarti finished with approximately 15 percent.
Larsen contributed $100,000 to Abundant Future, a PAC formed late last year that spent roughly $65,200 in opposition to Chakrabarti, Federal Election Commission filings show. He also donated $7,000 directly to Wiener's official campaign organization, FEC records confirm. Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan added $25,000 to Abundant Future, and Jeremy Liew, formerly of Lightspeed Venture Partners, contributed $20,000. Both firms have invested heavily in blockchain infrastructure and crypto exchanges.
Chakrabarti had named the PAC explicitly in his campaign materials, calling out "tech oligarchs and crypto billionaires who oppose our agenda" in press releases posted to his campaign site. He backed a CBDC mandate and positioned himself as a progressive insurgent against the Democratic establishment. His $10 million self-funded campaign was substantial; Abundant Future's $65,200 in opposition spending was a fraction of that sum. The result suggests that targeted crypto money — placed strategically behind a credible opponent — can be more decisive than raw spending totals.
The irony is hard to miss. Chakrabarti made his fortune as a founding engineer at Stripe, which has gone all-in on stablecoins and crypto payments infrastructure — the precise technology category he spent his campaign attacking. The industry he exited helped fund his exit from the race.
The result fits a broader pattern. Last month, a pro-crypto PAC called Fairshake claimed victory after six congressional candidates won primaries across the country, with more than $20 million in crypto industry support. Ripple donated $5 million worth of XRP to Donald Trump's inaugural fund in 2024. Larsen himself donated $11 million in XRP to a Democrat-aligned PAC supporting Kamala Harris in that same cycle — a contribution that drew criticism from parts of the crypto industry as baffling. The through-line is not partisan: it is that the crypto industry has demonstrated a willingness to spend on both sides and has now beaten candidates in primaries on both sides of the aisle.
Chakrabarti had staked his campaign on the argument that crypto money corrupts politics. The June 3 results gave crypto money the opportunity to respond directly — and it did, in the district crypto money was most explicitly targeted. Scott Wiener, who advances to a November runoff against Connie Chan, is a California state senator with a record friendly to the tech industry.
Heading into November, the question is whether crypto's political infrastructure — Fairshake, Abundant Future, and allied donor networks — can translate primary-cycle wins into general-election influence at scale, or whether their power remains concentrated in low-turnout primaries where a motivated donor base can move results more easily. The SF-11 race was the clearest test yet. The answer was unambiguous.
This story has no on-chain metrics — all figures are from FEC filings and election results. No claims block is required.