Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in September 2026 stopped making cryptocurrency a central theme of his campaign, in contrast to his 2024 presidential run when he regularly praised Bitcoin (BTC), mining, and criticized CBDCs. Meanwhile, his political organizations received significant support from industry donors: the V-PAC super PAC received $20 million from Jeff Yass, $6 million from Ross Stevens, and $5 million from Elon Musk.

Crypto Donations and Digital Asset Contributions

The campaign website accepts cryptocurrency donations. The maximum contributions of $16,615 each were made by World Liberty Financial co-founders Chase Herro, Zach Folkman, and Zachary Vitkoff. V-PAC also received $5,000 from the Bitcoin Voter Project.

Strive Stake and BTC Holdings Disclosure

Ramaswamy retained a stake in Strive, the asset manager he founded in 2022, which as of August 28 held 23,156 BTC worth about $2 billion. An August filing with the SEC showed the candidate owned 5,693,897 shares in the company; their value exceeded $170 million as of September 26. He also reported personally holding more than $1,000 in BTC and ETH as of April.

Ohio State Services Accept Crypto Payments from September 17

On September 17, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced the acceptance of cryptocurrency for payment of state services and fees. No public statements from Ramaswamy on this topic were recorded in September. Previously, before announcing his campaign in February 2025, he supported the Ohio Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve Act, and after launching his campaign, he spoke at the Bitcoin for America conference in March and Bitcoin 2025 in May.