If they refuse the donations, that's a strong statement on cryptocurrencies, which is a controversial issue they'd probably prefer to ignore, since it's not particularly relevant to their aims.
If they choose to take the money, they risk having to defend that choice if the cryptocurrency industry collapses in disgrace.
>refuse the donations
Hahaha. They have already accepted millions of dollars donated by him to various PACs, among them Pelosi's "House Majority PAC". He was among the largest donors to Bidens campaign.
He also donated USD 10 million to "Protect Our Future" PAC, which supposedly is about protecting the environment and caring about "biodiversity" according to their website, but has actually forwarded that money to politicians. They exclusively give to Democrats as a ProPublica investigation has shown¹. $13.5 million to some candidate for Oregon that ended up losing for example.
¹ https://projects.propublica.org/itemizer/committee/C00801514...
I think this politico article probably has the best overview: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/12/carrick-fl...
It doesn't matter much what they purport the donations are for, no one in their right mind would admit they lobby senators for power and control. It's always for the children, for the environment, for "our" future etc. Everyone sufficiently rich enough has a tax exempt foundation in their name. There is a long line of mega rich "altruists" controlling politics, an earlier generation of web company founders with people like Gates, Bezos and Zuckerberg is highly active with their charitable foundations and their corporations largely control what the public thinks and what people are allowed to say online. Now a new generation is rising, riding on the wave of decentralization.
And just so you don't get me wrong, decentralization is a good thing and Bitcoin was a great innovation. The likes of Bankman-Fried don't represent the spirit of it, just as the likes of Microsoft represent the polar opposite of what the internet was meant to be: A means of free expression and information flow around the world. A democratizing force. These people are corrupting it.
https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/united-states
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC?location...
Going by the actual emissions, the decrease seems to be slowing when a Democratic candidate gets elected. Not to speak of Clinton under whom emissions actually increased, not decreased!
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/climate/united-states-cli...
Not to mention all the well-intentioned liberal policies like increase vehicle fuel efficiency standards or the Clean Power Plan that got reversed by Trump before they came into effect. We need a good 20 years of complete liberal control of 3 branches of government and we haven't gotten anywhere near that.
Take the money. If he collapses, there is nobody to whom any favours must be paid. That’s a win. This giving by Bankman-Fried looks like the same mistake Jen Bush’s campaign donors made in ‘16, thinking a cheque and a cheque alone buys power.